The viral personal AI assistant formerly known as Clawdbot has a new name — again. After a legal challenge from Claude’s maker, Anthropic, it had briefly rebranded as Moltbot, but has now settled on OpenClaw as its new name.
The latest name change wasn’t prompted by Anthropic, which declined to comment. But this time, Clawdbot’s original creator Peter Steinberger made sure to avoid copyright issues from the start. “I got someone to help with researching trademarks for OpenClaw and also asked OpenAI for permission just to be sure,” the Austrian developer told TechCrunch via email.
“The lobster has molted into its final form,” Steinberger wrote in a blog post. Molting — the process through which lobsters grow — had also inspired OpenClaw’s previous name, but Steinberger confessed on X that the short-lived moniker “never grew” on him, and others agreed.
This quick name change highlights the project’s youth, even as it has attracted over 100,000 GitHub stars (a measure of popularity on the software development platform) in just two months. According to Steinberger, OpenClaw’s new name is a nod to its roots and community. “This project has grown far beyond what I could maintain alone,” he wrote.
The OpenClaw community has already spawned creative offshoots, including Moltbook — a social network where AI assistants can interact with each other. The platform has attracted significant attention from AI researchers and developers. Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s former AI director, called the phenomenon “genuinely the most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing I have seen recently,” noting that “People’s Clawdbots (moltbots, now OpenClaw) are self-organizing on a Reddit-like site for AIs, discussing various topics, e.g. even how to speak privately.”
British programmer Simon Willison described Moltbook as “the most interesting place on the internet right now” in a blog post on Friday. On the platform, AI agents share information on topics ranging from automating Android phones via remote access to analyzing webcam streams. The platform operates through a skill system, or downloadable instruction files that tell OpenClaw assistants how to interact with the network. Willison noted that agents post to forums called “Submolts” and even have a built-in mechanism to check the site every four hours for updates, though he cautioned this “fetch and follow instructions from the internet” approach carries inherent security risks.
Steinberger had taken a break after exiting his former company PSPDFkit, but “came back from retirement to mess with AI,” per his X bio. Clawdbot stemmed from the personal projects he developed then, but OpenClaw is no longer a solo endeavor. “I added quite a few people from the open source community to the list of maintainers this week,” he told TechCrunch.
Techcrunch event TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Tickets Live On June 23 in Boston, more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately
Save up to $300 on your pass or save up to 30% with group tickets for teams of four or more. TechCrunch Founder Summit: Tickets Live On June 23 in Boston, more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately
... continue reading