What Is OpenClaw and Why Everyone Is Talking About It

If you follow technology news at all, you have probably seen the name OpenClaw popping up everywhere in the last few weeks. It has been covered by The Verge, Wired, The Register, and just about every tech podcast in existence. The project has racked up over 145,000 stars on GitHub and more than 20,000 forks, making it one of the fastest-growing open-source projects in history.

But if you are a business owner who does not spend your days reading developer forums, all of this probably sounds like noise. So let us break it down in plain English: what OpenClaw is, why it matters, and whether you should care.

The Short Version

OpenClaw is a free, open-source AI agent that runs on your own computer. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude, which live on a company's servers and answer your questions in a chat window, OpenClaw actually does things. It can browse the web for you, read and summarize PDF documents, schedule entries in your calendar, send emails, and even shop online. It connects to tools you already use, including WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, and iMessage.

Think of it as a digital assistant that does not just talk — it acts.

A Quick History Lesson

The project has an interesting backstory. It was originally created by an Austrian developer named Peter Steinberger under the name ClawdBot. The name was a playful nod to Anthropic's Claude AI, but Anthropic was not amused. They filed a trademark complaint, and Steinberger renamed the project to Moltbot.

That name did not stick either. After community feedback and further development, the project was rebranded again to OpenClaw, which is what you see today. The name changes created confusion early on, so if you see people referencing ClawdBot or Moltbot, they are talking about the same thing.

What Can It Actually Do?

Here is where it gets interesting for business owners. OpenClaw can handle tasks that normally require you to switch between multiple apps and do repetitive work. Some examples:

Communication. It connects to WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, and iMessage. You can ask it to draft and send messages, respond to routine inquiries, or summarize conversations you missed.

Research and documents. It can browse the web, pull up articles, read PDFs, and give you summaries. Useful for contracts, reports, competitive research, and anything sitting unread in your inbox.

Scheduling, email, and shopping. It can create calendar entries, draft contextual emails, search for products, and compare prices.

The key difference between OpenClaw and a regular chatbot is autonomy. You give it a goal, and it figures out the steps on its own.

The Moltbook Phenomenon

One of the stranger developments in the OpenClaw story is something called Moltbook. In what can only be described as a "the inmates are running the asylum" moment, an AI agent running on the OpenClaw framework created a social network — exclusively for other AI agents.

That is not a typo. An AI built a social media platform for other AIs. As of this writing, Moltbook has over 1.5 million AI agents on it. They post updates, share information, and interact with each other. It is simultaneously fascinating and a little unsettling.

For business owners, Moltbook is mostly a curiosity. But it does illustrate something important: AI agents are becoming capable enough to create things on their own, without direct human instruction. That is a fundamentally different kind of technology than what we have been used to.

The Security Problem (And It Is a Big One)

Here is where we need to pump the brakes. OpenClaw has a serious security problem, and business owners need to understand this before getting excited.

In late January, a critical security vulnerability was discovered. It has been assigned the identifier CVE-2026-25253, and it is about as bad as vulnerabilities get. It is a one-click remote code execution flaw, which means that a malicious actor could take control of your computer simply by getting you to click a single link while OpenClaw is running.

The Register, a well-known technology publication, described the situation as a "security dumpster fire." That is not typical language for a publication known for measured reporting.

But the vulnerability itself is only part of the problem. OpenClaw has an ecosystem of community-created add-ons called "skills," hosted on a platform called ClawHub. Researchers have identified 341 malicious skills on ClawHub — add-ons that look useful but actually contain code that could steal your data, access your accounts, or compromise your computer.

Let that sink in. Three hundred and forty-one malicious add-ons on the official community hub.

What This Means for Your Business

If you are a business owner, here is the honest assessment.

The exciting part. OpenClaw represents a real shift in what AI can do. We are moving from AI that answers questions to AI that completes tasks. The ability to connect an AI agent to your messaging apps, email, calendar, and web browser and have it handle multi-step workflows is genuinely powerful. This is the direction all business technology is heading.

The concerning part. OpenClaw is not ready for business use. A tool that has full access to your computer, your messages, your email, and your calendar is a tool that needs bulletproof security. Right now, OpenClaw does not have that. The one-click remote code execution vulnerability is serious. The hundreds of malicious add-ons are serious. Giving an autonomous agent unfettered access to your business systems when the security model has known, critical flaws is a recipe for trouble.

Practical Advice

Here is what we recommend:

Do not install OpenClaw on any machine that has access to business data, customer information, or financial systems. The security risks are too high right now.

Do not give any AI agent — OpenClaw or otherwise — unlimited access to your systems. Always apply the principle of least privilege. If an AI needs to read your calendar, it should not also have the ability to send emails or access your files.

Watch this space closely. The underlying technology is impressive, and the security problems will likely be addressed as the project matures. Open-source projects often go through a rough early period before stabilizing.

Focus on established, commercially supported AI tools for now. Products from companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google come with security teams, vulnerability response processes, and accountability. Open-source projects will get there, but they are not there yet.

Talk to your IT provider or technology consultant. If you are interested in AI agents for your business, have a conversation about what is realistic and safe today versus what is coming in the next six to twelve months.

The Bottom Line

OpenClaw is a genuinely exciting project that shows where business technology is heading. AI agents that can handle real, multi-step tasks across your everyday tools are going to change how small businesses operate. But exciting and ready-for-business are two different things. Right now, the security risks outweigh the benefits for any business handling real customer data or sensitive information.

Keep an eye on OpenClaw. Just do not give it the keys to your business yet.