AI startup OpenAI has invited OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger to lead its personal AI agents division. Meanwhile, the entrepreneur has been accused of refusing to launch the project's token.
Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents. He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people. We expect this will quickly become core to our…
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 15, 2026
“He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future, where smart agents interact with each other to perform truly useful tasks for people. We expect this will quickly become a key part of our product offerings,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The CEO added that OpenClaw will operate as an open project supported by his company.
“I want to change the world, not build a big corporation, and collaborating with OpenAI is the fastest way to get this out to everyone,” Steinberger noted in his blog.
OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot) is an open-source service that gained popularity in late January. It allows users to create AI agents that operate locally on their devices.
Issues with the Crypto Community
In an interview with Lex Fridman, Steinberger discussed the harassment he faced from the crypto community. At one point, he considered shutting down the project.
“I didn’t realize they were not only good at harassment but also very skilled at using scripts and tools. I underestimated these people. Honestly, I was close to just deleting this [Clawdbot],” he stated.
Steinberger is not interested in releasing or promoting a token, yet users have been vocally demanding it. They created a digital asset and began pressuring the developer to acknowledge it, collect fees, and promote its development. They spammed Discord and X.
Ultimately, he was accused of not pumping the token. Meanwhile, crypto scammers attempted to hack the developer's GitHub, and during the project's rebranding, all usernames were quickly seized to promote new digital assets.
“This is the worst form of online harassment I have ever encountered,” Steinberger emphasized.
It’s worth noting that in January, experts warned about the risks of using the AI assistant Clawdbot, which could inadvertently expose personal data and API keys.