GoKawiilBack in 2023, the internet was buzzing about AutoGPT and BabyAGI. It was just after GPT-4 had arrived. Everyone was talking about autonomous agents taking jobs, how they can, and I remember how scared and paranoid people looked. However, they didn’t stand up to their promise. The conversations died off in a few weeks.
Fast forward to exactly three years, and people are having the same conversation. This time it’s OpenClaw powered by Opus. However, this time the models are much better, significantly better, with far fewer hallucinations, and the ecosystem has matured enough for OpenClaw to actually get things done. By “get things done,” I mean it can interact with your local system files, the terminal, browsers, Gmail, Slack, and even home automation systems.
It's been almost a month, and they are still out there on Twitter talking about it. And people talked so much about it that OpenAI acquihired Peter Steinberger. One man unicorn might've actually become a reality.
However, every gain has a cost, and in this case, it’s the security. The underlying tech, however impressive it looks, has serious holes that can put a bigger hole in your pocket. It's capable, it's expensive, and it's insecure.
This blog post talks about some of the good things and a lot of bad things about OpenClaw and its ecosystem, and how you can work around this if you’re truly motivated to use the tech. Though I personally didn't like it, neither saw its promise, or maybe I am employed.
OpenClaw: The Daydream
Imagine you wake up and open your laptop, and all your inboxes are cleared, meetings have been slotted with prep notes, weekend flight is booked, Alexa is playing “Every Breath You Take, Every move you make, I'll be watching you” by the Police (pun intended), without you doing anything but just typing it out to a bot or better, just talk to it. It will feel magical, almost like living in the future. This is the promise of OpenClaw. Human desire for automation is primal; that’s how we came up with gears, conveyor belts, machines, programming languages, and now a new breed of digital super-assistants powered by AI models.
Federico Viticci in Macstories writes,
The bull case for OpenClaw-like bots
Brandon Wang puts forward a very fair and just bull case for OpenClaw in his essay, where he outlines everything he has done with OpenClaw, from inbox reminders to appointment booking and more. He explains the ease and convenience of OpenClaw, as well as its stickiness.
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