GoKawiil"First there was chat, then there was code, now there is claw," AI researcher Andrej Karpaty posted on X in February.
The AI lexicon continues to expand, with claws now a new layer on top of AI agents, and it all began with OpenClaw.
OpenClaw -- which went through short-lived iterations as Clawdbot and Moltbot -- is an open-source AI agent designed to execute tasks autonomously across your most-used apps and services.
"Every company in the world today needs to have an OpenClaw strategy, an agentic system strategy," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during the 2026 GTC conference in San Jose in March, calling it "the new computer."
OpenClaw started the trend, but "claw" is now a category in its own right. And multiple companies now sell, ship or wrap their own versions of agents.
So what exactly is a claw, and why is everyone from solo hackers to Silicon Valley giants obsessed with "raising lobsters"? Let's explore.
It's not a chatbot, it's an employee
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang talks claws at Nvidia GTC. Nvidia/Screenshot by CNET
A claw is an AI agent that can actually do things on a computer, not just talk about doing them. You give it a goal, it breaks the goal into smaller steps, then it uses tools, like a web browser, a terminal or your apps, to carry out those steps.
The name comes from the idea of "clawing" into your system -- having the hands, or claws, to actually grab files, run terminal commands and control your mouse.
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