Who is Peter Steinberger, OpenAI's high-profile hire to build personal AI agents?

Peter Steinberger, founder of viral open-source AI agent OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI to help build the next generation of personal AI agents, CEO Sam Altman said on Sunday.

Announcing the development in a post on X, Altman said Steinberger would focus on advancing “very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people.”

“Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents. He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people,” Altman wrote.

He also confirmed that the OpenClaw project will transition into an independent foundation and remain open source.

“The future is going to be extremely multi-agent and it's important to us to support open source as part of that,” Altman said.

OpenClaw's rise

OpenClaw, formerly known as Clawdbot or Moltbot, is described by users as a digital assistant capable of managing emails, dealing with insurers, checking in for flights and performing a wide range of other everyday tasks.

The tool has seen a meteoric rise since its launch in November, attracting more than 100,000 stars on code repository GitHub and drawing about two million visitors in a single week, according to Steinberger.

Steinberger said he was joining OpenAI to help bring AI agents to everyone, while ensuring OpenClaw remains open and independent.

Calling the past month a “whirlwind”, Steinberger said his personal goal now was to build an agent “that even my mum can use”, which would require safer systems and access to cutting-edge models and research.

He noted that while OpenClaw could potentially grow into a large standalone company, he preferred to focus on building technology with global impact.

“I’m a builder at heart… What I want is to change the world, not build a large company, and teaming up with OpenAI is the fastest way to bring this to everyone,” he said.

Steinberger said that OpenAI has already been sponsoring OpenClaw and has committed to enabling him to continue dedicating time to the community-driven project.

“I’m super excited to join OpenAI, be part of the frontier of AI research and development, and continue building with all of you,” he said.