After Anthropic strongly suggested that Steinberger change its name to avoid legal issues, the project maintained its lobster-themed heritage and eventually landed on the OpenClaw moniker. The software has grown in popularity in recent months, with several ClawCon attendees who started using it in January referring to themselves as “veterans.”
The software serves as a bridge between today’s powerful AI systems, like Claude or OpenAI’s GPT family of models, and the real-world tasks that people actually want AI systems to perform.
After setting up your own OpenClaw agent, either on a physical computer or through a virtual provider, Users can send it text or WhatsApp messages, directing it to perform a variety of tasks within the wheelhouse of current AI systems. For example, users say they tell their OpenClaw agents to listen to episodes of their favorite podcast and send summaries of key insights to users’ inboxes, negotiate with car dealers on the price of a new vehicle, and even order and pay for grocery deliveries, all without direct human intervention.
Many ClawCon participants had signed up for the event after learning about these cutting-edge, hands-off uses of OpenClaw. The convention, which functioned as a high-energy gathering, featured a handful of performances on the main stage, a rap performance, an open dance floor and, upstairs, a less crowded VIP area with a live stream of the event taking place one floor below.
“There’s a kind of electricity and energy that you can feel in the room,” said Tomas Taylor, programmer and organizer of ClawCon. “OpenClaw has been something of a catalyst for personal AI systems, and I think personal AI is going to be incredibly important in the overall evolution of AI.” Taylor used her own OpenClaw system to help plan ClawCon and interact with vendors.
Designed to be accessible to anyone, OpenClaw can be used with paid AI systems from OpenAI and Anthropic or freely downloadable AI models, many of which come from Chinese companies such as DeepSeek or Alibaba. Agents can also teach themselves how to perform new tasks and keep detailed notes about a user’s preferences, allowing them to adapt to users’ tastes over time. OpenClaw itself relies on a small army of volunteers to maintain its code, respond to user problems, and fix any security bugs.
One of these volunteers, Vincent Koc, emphasized that the technology is still in its infancy, although it is already having profound real-world impacts for both many experienced coders and engineering novices.
“We’re having a personal computer moment again, but now it’s with real personal AI systems,” Koc shouted above the party hubbub. “I hear stories from moms, from artists, and from everyday people who can really create things with AI. And I think that’s magical.”
As the deep bass of the DJ’s techno beats shook cups of cocktail sauce on a nearby table, Koc, a software engineer by day, pointed to the hundreds of OpenClaw disciples on the dance floor and argued that the excitement was more than just a fad.
“I believe in this so much. I’m going to die by the sword for this,” Koc said. To help determine his tax burden earlier this year, Koc instructed his OpenClaw agent to find an accountant and request quotes. “The system sent emails to many different tax attorneys and they came back with actual quotes for their services.”
However, many in the male-dominated crowd were not as confident in the systems, whose claim to fame (the ability to perform meaningful actions without human supervision) could also be their Achilles heel, or the closest crustacean equivalent.
The free nature of OpenClaw systems recently made headlines after Summer Yue, a leading AI security researcher at Meta, nearly lost her entire inbox to her OpenClaw agent. Because OpenClaw can be linked to personal email or financial accounts, weaknesses in the system could easily expose users’ sensitive data to hackers around the world.
“These systems are not for normal people,” Koc said, referring to the masses of ordinary people less familiar with cutting-edge AI techniques and artificial intelligence in general. “You’re basically having an AI literally take over a machine. That may seem daunting, because you’re giving it access to information. But people should use their common sense. Take baby steps with these things.”
As ClawCon prepares for future stops in Austin, Tokyo and London, even the most enthusiastic in the audience acknowledged that this technology carries great risks.
“In Claw we trust!” said Mark Mollé, an intellectual property attorney, surveying the scene on the second floor while proudly holding a lobster-shaped necklace. “At least until the Hindenburg AI.”
“We see people blindly trusting untested and insecure agent tools, which will continue until some kind of disaster occurs,” Mollé said. Several participants mentioned that they had created cryptocurrency accounts for their agents and asked them to try to make money on prediction market websites like Polymarket.
Downstairs, after talks on the main stage concluded and a chrome guitarist took center stage, the catering staff engaged in animated conversations about workflows and railings, trying to find owners for the remaining lobster tails.
