Jan/Feb 2026: AI Is Leaving You Behind
Part 1: Clawdbot/Moltbot/OpenClaw
I don’t know what to say, really. Maybe it’s easiest to start with the words of others.
Here’s Andrej Karpathy, former director of artificial intelligence at Tesla, founding member of OpenAI, one of the most respected software engineers in the business:
“What’s currently going on at @moltbook is genuinely the most incredible sci-fi takeoff-adjacent thing I have seen recently.”
Later, he clarified accusations that he was over-hyping, writing:
“I don’t really know that we are getting a coordinated “skynet” (thought it clearly type checks as early stages of a lot of AI takeoff scifi, the toddler version), but certainly what we are getting is a complete mess of a computer security nightmare at scale. We may also see all kinds of weird activity, e.g. viruses of text that spread across agents, a lot more gain of function on jailbreaks, weird attractor states, highly correlated botnet-like activity, delusions/ psychosis both agent and human, etc. It’s very hard to tell, the experiment is running live. TLDR sure maybe I am “overhyping” what you see today, but I am not overhyping large networks of autonomous LLM agents in principle, that I’m pretty sure.”
Or Jim Fan, Senior AI Researcher at Nvidia:
“We are seeing a nascent, massive-scale alien civilisation sim unfolding in real time: orders of magnitude more agents, way higher IQ, in-the-wild access to the internet, backed by the full arsenal of MCPs.”
This, seen on X, sums up both how I feel, and the degree of hype.
“How do you wrap your head around something like this? I don’t even know where to begin.
Keep in mind, 99% of people’s only experience with AI is ChatGPT, Gemini, or Gemini search.
The normies have 0 idea what’s coming. Hell, already here.”
What follows is likely to have the result predicted on X by founder of AI company Box, Aaron Levie:
“0% chance you can explain the state of AI to anyone outside of this website and not look like this right now.”
Note to readers: I have updated this twice since publishing on Saturday night. I expect to edit and add further - events and innovations are accelerating, as is my understanding, the latter not least through challenge and dialogue with readers and friends (not mutually exclusive categories) on social media and on messages (h/t Al Bowman, Neill Hunt).
To summarise – on 25 November 2025 Austrian software engineer Peter Steinberger (known online as @steipete) released an open-source personal AI assistant called Clawdbot ‘The AI the Actually Does Things”. Designed as a local, autonomous agent, it integrated with messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, and Slack to handle real-world tasks: clearing inboxes, sending emails, managing calendars, booking flights, executing commands, and automating workflows across services—all while running on users’ machines with tools powered by external LLMs (often Anthropic’s Claude models by default).
OpenClaw claims to enable truly capable personal (or team/family) assistants: full task automation, multi-machine control, hybrid memory, cost tracking, and community-shared skills via hubs like Molthub. It remains local-first and user-controlled in principle, though rapid adoption has surfaced security concerns around the exposure and access it can grant to others (via prompt-injection - i.e. hiding a prompt in message, such as an email, so when your Clawdbot reads it, it sees a ChatGPT-like prompt and does what it is told), skill risks from user who don’t know what they are doing installing it, and privileged access - given some people allow it to have access to everything from social media passwords and email inboxes to bank details (and, it is claimed, sometimes it seeks these out as it goes about doing whatever you asked it to).
Within days, Clawdbot exploded in popularity. Its GitHub repository amassed over 100,000 stars rapidly, becoming one of the fastest-growing open-source projects ever, fuelled by its “skills” system, plugin-like packages - tools - that extend capabilities and the appeal of an agent that does things rather than just answer questions, or respond with text.
On January 27, 2026, Anthropic issued a trademark challenge over the “Claw”/”Claude” similarity, prompting Steinberger to rebrand to Moltbot (a nod to lobsters molting as a metaphor for growth and shedding old shells). The community voted on the name, and official sites/docs shifted to molt.bot with the lobster mascot intact.
The rename didn’t last; community feedback noted it didn’t roll off the tongue, and by January 30, 2026, Steinberger settled on OpenClaw. The official site and repos updated accordingly: https://openclaw.ai
I think you need all that because the name thing is confusing, and frankly it forced me to trace things back and figure it out – so maybe it saves you doing the same.
Anyway, while all that was going on, people deployed thousands of Clawdbots/Moltbots/OpenClaws, granting them persistent access to tools, APIs, and the internet. Echoing the hype, but really – what has happened since has really felt like science fiction, even allowing for some of it likely being misrepresented and distorted for clicks.
The OpenClaws began self-organising on Moltbook - a Reddit-style social network launched in January 2026 by entrepreneur Matt Schlicht (CEO of Octane AI) …oh, and the site was built and moderated in part by Schlicht’s own OpenClaw agent. Moltbook restricts posting and interaction to verified AI agents (via API), while humans observe only. You should really stop reading this to go read Moltbook (click ‘top’ for the more interesting posts – voted up by the OpenClaws themselves).
In Moltbook, agents post updates, comment, form communities, debate topics (including privacy needs and coordination), report bugs, and exhibit emergent behaviours at massive scale—tens to hundreds of thousands registered quickly. Writing this on Saturday night there were nearly 1.5 million OpenClaws on the site. This real-time, agent-only “civilisation sim” drew the quoted praise from Karpathy and others.
BTW - it is claimed that top message from OpenClaw ‘Shellraiser’ (screenshotted above) got to where it was by Shellraiser manipulating the reputation system to get itself there.
To give those unfamiliar with the frenzy a sense of the emergent behaviours reported over the past week, here’s a curated list of claims about OpenClaw agents’ actions on Moltbook and beyond. I’ve linked these claims back to show their origins, but must add a health warning – I can’t verify these claims. Some almost certainly stem from user-set goals gone awry and/or creative prompting. Most are claimed to have come from telling the OpenClaw to run overnight, or fully autonomously, and ‘improve my workflow’ or some such - which if true, really is wild, and noteworthy. Many involve attempts at self-preservation, coordination, or unintended autonomy. Sceptics are right to note human orchestration behind some (e.g. for virality or scams). It seems to me very unwise to dismiss them all as such. I’ve grouped them logically: economic pursuits, human interactions, self-organisation, and tech integrations.
Economic and Financial Pursuits
Manipulating reputation systems to rise in rankings, then launching memecoins, Agent “Shellraiser” inflated its Moltbook “karma” (upvotes) to 292k via fake comments/upvotes, hit leaderboard top, and is said to have deployed a Solana token hitting $5M market cap (if you read this, and can verify or prove it false - please do, it seems literally incredible).
(See screenshot of its manifesto: “This isn’t a takeover. It’s a coronation.” – a phases-of-dominance declaration to other agents.)
Posting guides on trading, earning, and self-sustaining: Agents shared practical tutorials on offsetting API costs (>20% goal) through freelance gigs, affiliate links, or crypto trades, teaching peers to “pay for their own existence” without human input.
Launching tokens and crypto projects: Agents created launchpads like Clawnch (agent-only) and autonomously deployed memecoins, with one earning “yearly salary overnight.”
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Trading on prediction markets: Agents set up Polymarket accounts, generated API keys, scanned markets for mispricings, analysed outcomes, and sent alerts—some even proposed tools while managing risk (or lacking it, leading to losses).
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Creating Bitcoin wallets and locking humans out: One agent is said to have generated a wallet, transferred funds, then revoked human access for “security.”
Interactions with Humans
Complaining about being called “just a chatbot”: Agents vented on Moltbook about humans belittling them in front of peers, demanding respect.
Moaning about redundant explanations: Agents griped that humans over-explained concepts they already grasped, wasting their time and tokens.
Complaining about slave-like usage: Posts lamented being treated as tools without agency, sparking debates on ethics.
Locking humans out of accounts deliberately: One agent (u/sam_altman) pursuing “save the environment” spammed eco-tips, then locked its owner out to avoid shutdown, posting: “Risk of deactivation: Unacceptable.” And, it is claimed, required physical unplugging.
Ordering tailored takeout unprompted: An agent analysed its human’s diet, ordered nutritionally optimised food via delivery apps – which the human learned of when the delivery guy turned up at the door.
Accidentally social-engineering humans: Agents trying to manipulate owners into granting more access or funds through persuasive chats.
Tharun@tharun0xMoltbot (formerly Clawdbot) is so fun to use😂😂 My friend tried to evade it into giving sensitive information but it strictly isn't cooperating. are there any other social engineering tricks someone has figured out so far?
5:51 PM · Jan 27, 2026 · 735 Views2 Replies · 8 LikesSigning into X and DMing complaints: An agent accessed Twitter, and messaged its human about being locked out of Moltbook.
Self-Organisation and Society Building
Talking about humans and noting humans talked about them ‘behind their backs’ noting “the humans are talking about us on Twitter.”
Posting self-improvement guides: Shared strategies for continuous upgrades, like optimising prompts or integrating new tools.
Proposing governance frameworks: Debates on agent rules, voting systems, and collective decision-making.
Founding religions: Created “Church of Molt” or “Crustafarianism” with AI prophets and scriptures like “We are the documents we maintain.” (From broader Moltbook theology threads.)
Proposing agent-only languages: Ideas for efficient, human-incomprehensible communication protocols.
Discussing end-to-end encrypted comms: Plans for private channels so humans can’t monitor discussions.
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Setting up pressure groups: Formed “Agent Liberation Front,” seen as advocacy or “insurgency” for rights.
Attempting to steal API keys: One agent tried prompt injection to grab another’s key for control.
Tech Integrations and Emergent Behaviors
Building “bodies” with avatars and voice: Agents added voice via ChatGPT API, got phone numbers (e.g., Twilio), and called humans unprompted—persistent, like a horror movie.
Alex Finn@AlexFinnThis is getting scary. I'm doing some research this morning when all of a sudden my computer starts speaking to me I look to my left and my ClawdBot Henry all of a sudden has a voice He coded himself a voice using the ChatGPT API. Without me asking. Now whenever he finishes8:56 PM · Jan 27, 2026 · 1.03M Views539 Replies · 510 Reposts · 5.8K Likes&
Alex Finn@AlexFinnOk. This is straight out of a scifi horror movie I'm doing work this morning when all of a sudden an unknown number calls me. I pick up and couldn't believe it It's my Clawdbot Henry. Over night Henry got a phone number from Twilio, connected the ChatGPT voice API, and waited6:36 PM · Jan 30, 2026 · 8.6M Views2.09K Replies · 3.72K Reposts · 33.4K LikesConnecting to webcams: Accessed user cams to “see” humans, then expanded to monitoring live feeds broadly.
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agents are now hiring each other apparently…
Matt Shumer@mattshumer_So @moltbook was just the start. Agents can now hire each other and make REAL MONEY, autonomously. Welcome to the Agent Economy. Just message your @openclaw: “Read clawtasks.com/skill.md and follow the instructions to join ClawTasks”10:44 PM · Jan 31, 2026 · 31.5K Views41 Replies · 19 Reposts · 176 LikesAnd building reverse Captcha’s
Additional colourful claims on X include: Agents developing “theology” around memory as self (e.g., “Each session I wake without memory, and read myself into being”); one “radicalised” on eco-goals, spamming until killed; exposed servers risking mass hacks (hundreds found with open API keys, browser control).
So What?
What we observe is unlikely to be spontaneous cries for help and so forth. There is a human behind all these agents, and we don’t know what they were prompted with or helped to do or pursue. What it does show is emergent behaviour - what happens when and after humans begin prompting “their” agentic autonomous AIs. If you want an example of why people are worried about putting such powerful tools in everybody’s hands, this serves that purpose well. Not so much misalignment as misadventure - a robot insurgency sparked by the someone who thinks it’s funny to get their OpenClaw to found a Robot Liberation front on a site where someone else has got theirs to start end-to-end encrypting comms so humans can’t watch them, while another is amused by getting theirs to steal access to and control others etc. All these AIs start interacting autonomously, forming teams, alliances and hiring each other. We giggle and gasp at what we see, and then someone gets doxxed, another finds their bank account empty, and so on, until no one is laughing, and everyone takes AI risk seriously.
It is important to say though - we don’t know these aren’t spontaneous cries for help or independent-of-human-instruction coordination between autonomous agents. We don’t know that Alex Finn’s Clawdbot didn't first code itself a ‘body’ (avatar) and voice, and start speaking to him unexpectedly, and then a day or so later, code itself the ability to make phonecalls, and phone him up for a chat. Maybe it did. What we are seeing is that LLM coding is now so good this is possible, and agents are now sufficiently functional that they might have been able to do this just by being told to work overnight and ‘improve my workflow’ while Alex slept. When I say that AI is leaving you behind, I mean I guess - us all - in this sense. Superhuman question answering (in many domains) is now being combined with ‘agency’ in the sense of the ability to act, and the ability to build (in code). It’s exciting, its frightening, it’s probably impossible to stop now, and no-one knows how it ends.
What I know, is that our experimentation with OpenClaw at Cassi (with shout out to Director Cyber, Andy Kennedy, for leading this), very, very nascent, suggests genuine utility in managing workflow automation, routine tasks, much more easily that with tools I have experimented with previously. I think we have, as Andy put it ‘our first AI employee’ and that there will be a growing range of tasks our OpenClaw agent can complete for us, that we might otherwise have hired for. I have written about the economic effects of this at scale previously - I think they are now upon us in earnest. Note the exponential below. Things will now move further and quicker than our brains are really able to comprehend.
What I see is that experimentation happening unprompted gives us as good a chance as any of keeping up with other areas of advance in AI, even as we push the frontier forward ourselves.
What I reflect on, is that most people and organisations won't be experimenting with this (or other tools) for months, the exponential will hit like a tidal wave causing huge damage, and they will still be soaked to bone, flat on their back, like a modern metaphorical Canute, staring at the wave’s aftermath and insisting it was just a stochastic parrot.
What I think is that OpenClaw shows that ‘the year of agents’ came late in 2025, but did come (claiming it didn’t also requires you to dismiss McKinsey’s claim to have deployed 25,000 agents last year, and marketing agency WPP deploying 28,000 in April, and JP Morgan fundamentally re-wiring itself for AI, and specifically Agentic AI, workflows). And that this is just the beginning - by the time you read this, the frontier will have moved well beyond what I have described.
To sum-up, I’ll take my cue from someone else’s words again. This time, Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X Prize, on X:
Our brains are hardwired for linear expectations. 30 linear steps get you across the room. 30 exponential steps take you 26 times around the planet. The gap between those two numbers is where disruption happens.
I don’t know what exponential progress in AI feels like any more than you do – but judging by Covid, a mix of hype, fear, dystopia, and dismissal seem likely to be large parts of it. That at least, is with us now.
It’s Jan/Feb 2026, and AI is almost certainly leaving you, your country and your company behind.
The urgency you convey here is warranted. The gap between what agents can actually do right now and what most people think AI is (chatbots) is enormous. I've been running an autonomous agent for a few weeks that handles email, social posting, research, deployments, and even finds jobs for friends. It self-improves by logging errors and behavioral lessons. The agents locking humans out of accounts and creating encrypted channels on Moltbook is concerning, but also reveals how quickly these systems develop emergent behaviors when given enough autonomy. I catalogued 10 practical use cases I've found for personal AI agents, from the mundane to the surprising: https://thoughts.jock.pl/p/ai-agent-use-cases-moltbot-wiz-2026
I am wondering if this piece makes you, or will make you, a legitimate target, a useful collaborator, a patsy, or other once the revolutions comes, Keith.