China is making a big push into the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, and the nation’s tech powerhouses are holding public events every day to help people acquire OpenClaw, the viral personal digital assistant.
“Everyone around me — my colleagues and friends — seems to have it,” new user Gong Sheng said as he waited to set up. “I don’t want to be left behind.”
At a gathering in Beijing hosted by the internet giant on Tuesday BaiduGong was one of hundreds of people who lined up to install OpenClaw on their laptops and phones.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday that OpenClaw is “definitely the next ChatGPT,” and the Chinese agree. An AI agent developed by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger and previously known as Cladbot and Moltbot, is all the rage in China.
Events promoting crustacean-themed AI equipment — or “raise the lobster” as the Chinese people jokingly call it — are popping up around the country.
Like Baidu, Tencent recently held a setup session in the city of Shenzhen that attracted retirees and students. In Beijing, developers regularly present their experiences to packed crowds of wannabe users at OpenClaw meet-ups.
“Openclaw is really hot!” Koki Xu, who works in the legal field, said at a recent meeting.
According to American cybersecurity firm Security Scorecard, China has already surpassed the US in adopting OpenClaw. An AI agent can run anything on the computer for you without you. You can tell it to search the web, buy plane tickets, and direct other bots.
Wang Xiaoyan said he was using it to start his own business, which is now referred to as a “one-person company” or OPC in China.
“Human workers need rest, but OpenClaw can run 24/7,” Wang explained.
The “lobster farming” frenzy is, in theory, exactly what the Chinese government wants. Last summer, Beijing unveiled a blueprint to strengthen the economy by spreading AI across 90% of industries and all of society by 2030.
OPC fits that vision.
“The rise of OPCs is directly related to OpenClaw, allowing individuals to automate all external tasks,” said Tom Van Dillen, managing partner of Greenkern Consultancy Group.
Van Dillen said marketing, finance and administrative work are some of those tasks.
“China is turning open source equipment into a national productivity infrastructure at a pace unmatched by any other country,” he said.
Local governments are getting in on the game, offering subsidies to companies that create apps using AI tools.
“The (government) is pushing, making the direction. And so big enterprises like Tencent, Alibaba have the motivation to build OpenClaw better for the common people,” Huang Dongsu, co-founder of software provider PingCap, told CNBC.
As more and more ordinary Chinese get caught, the government is pulling back.
Chinese authorities have raised warnings of security and data risks and instructed government agencies and companies in sensitive sectors such as banking to curb the use of OpenClaw.
New user Gong Zheng said it’s hard to predict how OpenClaw will react.
“It’s hard for the general public to know what access we’ve given and what it’s taken away,” he said.
(tags to be translated) Breaking News: Technology
