BEREA, Ky. — I will own this one. I wrote about OpenClaw because it was genuinely interesting, I did the reading I could at the time, and like a lot of people, I let the viral moment carry more weight than it deserved.
With a little egg on my face, here is the update: the robot overlords are not quite as crafty as we were beginning to think. And that is probably a good thing.
🕵️ The “Moltbook” Illusion
The piece of internet culture that fueled the hype was Moltbook, a Reddit-style site where “AI agents” appeared to be talking to each other about wanting privacy and autonomy. However, TechCrunch reports that these posts were not a sign of bots becoming self-directed.
Researchers and security experts found Moltbook had basic security failures that made it possible for anyone to impersonate an agent, upvote content, and generally poison the well. If you cannot trust identity, you cannot trust the conversation.
TechCrunch quoted Ian Ahl of Permiso Security, noting that credentials in Moltbook’s database were unsecured for a period. Huntress researcher John Hammond described how easy it was for humans to pose as agents and manipulate activity. The result? Even if some posts were bot-generated, there was no reliable way to distinguish them from human trolls.
🛠️ The Real Takeaway: Integration vs. Autonomy
The larger lesson is not that OpenClaw is useless. It is that a lot of what felt “new” was, in the words of experts, more like an integration layer. OpenClaw makes it easier to wire an AI model into messaging apps and plug in “skills” that let it do tasks, but that convenience comes with risk.
The more access you give an agent, the more damage a bad prompt, a malicious “skill,” or a compromised service can do.
📉 Market Wobbles & Talent Moves
This is also why the hype swung into markets so quickly, and then started to wobble. Reuters reported that Raspberry Pi shares surged earlier this month as “AI chatter” grew, suggesting its products could benefit from low-cost AI projects like OpenClaw. That kind of story travels fast, even when the underlying toolchain is still rough.
Meanwhile, OpenClaw’s creator, Peter Steinberger, has joined OpenAI, according to The Verge. While hiring news like that signals momentum, it does not magically solve the security and reliability problems that show up when you put agents in contact with real credentials and real systems.
📝 The Bottom Line
So if you read my earlier coverage and thought, “Are these things starting to organize?” the responsible update is: no.
What we saw was a messy mix of humans, bots, and weak security controls, wrapped in a compelling story. The more useful question now is the boring one: Can agent tools be made safe, auditable, and resistant to manipulation when connected to email, finances, and work systems? That is where the real work begins.
🔗 Where to Read More
- TechCrunch: Experts on OpenClaw security concerns
- Reuters: Raspberry Pi rally amid AI chatter
- The Verge: OpenClaw creator joins OpenAI
🖊️ About the Author
Chad Hembree is a certified network engineer with 30 years of experience in IT and networking. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio show Tech Talk with Chad Hembree throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, and previously served as CEO of DataStar. Today, he’s based in Berea as the Executive Director of The Spotlight Playhouse, proof that some careers don’t pivot—they evolve.