Say hello to Open Claw: Your Personal AI Assistant

Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT have gained massive popularity among users worldwide. However, another artificial intelligence program is emerging that could soon set a new benchmark in the industry—while also intensifying long-standing fears about AI’s potential to replace human labour.

The software, called Open Claw, was recently released by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger. Unlike traditional LLMs, Open Claw functions as a highly autonomous personal assistant capable of performing real-world tasks. These include managing emails and calendars, browsing the web to extract information or fill out online forms, making purchases and reservations, and automating actions on applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram.

Despite its powerful capabilities, Open Claw is not particularly user-friendly for beginners. To start using it, users must download files from GitHub and connect the program to an external LLM such as Claude or GPT-4. Several industry experts have noted that this complexity may discourage average users, especially when competitors offer more accessible, plug-and-play solutions.

One of Open Claw’s standout features is persistent memory. This allows the agent to remember user activities over long periods and adapt its behavior based on past interactions, creating a highly personalized and hyper-realistic user experience.

Open Claw is an open-source program and can be downloaded free of cost. Currently, it boasts 172,000 stars and 27,800 forks on GitHub, signaling strong interest and growing adoption within the developer community.

However, alongside its advantages, Open Claw raises serious privacy and security concerns. Users may unknowingly share sensitive information such as passwords, personal credentials, or payment details while allowing the agent to perform tasks like online shopping. As an uncontrolled AI system, there is a risk that such data could be exposed to hackers or misused. Additionally, errors or unintended actions—such as deleting important emails or sending unwanted messages—could have serious consequences.

Adding to the debate, Open Claw is reportedly expanding rapidly beyond Silicon Valley, with growing interest and development activity in China. As its adoption increases, questions surrounding regulation, security, and ethical use are likely to become even more urgent.