OpenClaw is the moment AI stops feeling like a clever chatbot and starts behaving like something closer to a digital co-worker. In the latest episode of The Business of Tech, you’ll hear exactly why.

Veteran software developer and AI entrepreneurMike Hall joins me to break down what OpenClaw actually is in plain language. It’s not another prompt-and-response assistant, but a particularly smart type of AI agent that can wake itself up on a schedule, scan your data and tools, and decide for itself whether there’s work to be done. If it needs to write code to perform a task for you, it will do that too.

Mike explains how that simple “heartbeat” loop, asking “Should I do something?” every minute, is the key shift that turns AI from reactive to proactive, and why that’s such a big deal compared with the chatbots most people have used so far.

Skills and the hive mind

We dig into how OpenClaw goes far beyond the current crop of AI agents baked into office suites and CRM platforms. OpenClaw is designed to live on your own infrastructure, plug into email, files and SaaS tools, and then act autonomously rather than waiting to be told what to do. 

OpenClaw has sparked a surge of interest from developers, an explosion of “skills” that any OpenClaw instance can download. The hive mind model central to OpenClaw is unlike anything we’ve seen in commercial agent products. That’s probably why OpenAI has snapped up OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger and will put him to work developing the next generation of AI agents for the creator of ChatGPT.

Sandboxes essential

We also cover the risks OpenClaw raises. Running OpenClaw on your personal machine can expose your entire digital life, which is why sandboxes and strict permissioning are essential. What happens when you let agents install community-built skills that might contain malware? 

Then there’s Moltbook, the social platform where OpenClaw-powered agents post and argue with each other, and what that experiment tells us about a near future flooded with AI personas.

If you’ve heard the noise about OpenClaw and “agentic AI” but still aren’t clear on what’s genuinely new here – and why it matters for your business, your data and your job – this conversation will get you there. 

Streaming on iHeartRadio or your favourite podcast platform. Thanks to our sponsor, 2degrees.

Show notes

Mike Hall, CEO Ab0t.com

OpenClaw: The AI Assistant That Actually Does Things - Turing College

OpenClaw, OpenAI and the future - Peter Steinberger

Meta and Other Tech Companies Ban OpenClaw Over Cybersecurity Concerns - Wired

OpenAI hires OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger - FT

What OpenAI’s OpenClaw hire says about the future of AI agents - Fortune

Is OpenClaw Closed? - Hackster

OpenClaw threats: assessing the risks, and how to handle shadow AI - Kapersky