After watching the complete 3-hour interview with the founder of Openclaw, I want to summarize and share the story behind Openclaw.
In November 2025, Openclaw founder Peter was sitting in front of his computer, he was fed up. He wanted an AI assistant to help him with work, but all the products on the market were too complex and too closed. So he thought, to hell with it, I'll build one myself.
An hour later, he connected WhatsApp to Claude, received messages, had AI process them, and then sent messages back, just that simple.
And what is the most magical part? One day, while traveling in Morocco, he was too lazy to type, so he sent a voice message to AI asking for restaurant recommendations, and AI replied instantly. Peter was frozen in shock, 'Wait, I didn’t write a voice function, how could it understand my voice?'
A strange sense of unease suddenly enveloped Peter...
Host: How the fuck did he do that?
(How the hell did they do that?)
Originally, when Peter opened the log, the AI detected that this was a voice message and had to be converted to text to read it. Then he discovered that there was no conversion tool installed locally, so the AI called OpenAI's voice interface to complete the transcription and then replied to the message. The entire process was automatic and seamless.
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This is the fundamental difference between AI agents and traditional software; it does not execute the code you wrote but solves problems on its own.
After the project took off, Anthropic (the parent company of Claude) sent Peter an email saying that the name ClawdBot was too similar to theirs and asked if he could change it.
Peter thought, then let’s change it. He prepared a new name called MoltBot, and then the nightmare began...
He opened Twitter, and the first step was to change the current account from ClawdBot to MoltBot, and the second step was to immediately register a new account called ClawdBot to secure the old name.
However, he never expected that the moment he changed the account name from ClawdBot to MoltBot, the old name would be released, and anyone could use it. When he went to register a new account five seconds later, the system prompted that the username was already taken.
Later it was discovered that a speculator from a certain cryptocurrency used an automated script and took away the name ClawdBot in just 0.5 seconds.
Peter refreshed that fake ClawdBot account, which had already started posting scam links. He took a deep breath and went to change the name on GitHub. What happened? The same thing happened again; right after he changed the new name, the old name was snatched away again in 0.5 seconds, and it was filled with download links for virus software.
Then, various platforms began to replay this nightmare. Peter sat in front of his computer, watching one after another pop-up message saying, 'This username is already taken,' leaving him completely numb.
Peter: Honestly, I was that close to just deleting it. I showed you the future; you build it.
(Peter: To be honest, I almost deleted this thing; I already showed the future, you all should build it.)
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But the story is not over yet; a few days later, Peter decided to change the name again, this time to OpenClaw. This time he was smarter and contacted Twitter and GitHub employees in advance for help, and ultimately succeeded in renaming it.
Immediately afterward, Zuckerberg from Meta and Sam Altman from OpenAI launched a war for talent. According to the latest news, Peter has decided to join OpenAI because Sam Altman told him that if he wanted to achieve something big, he could give him Thor's hammer.
At the end of the interview, the host asked: What advice would you give to young people? Peter thought for a moment and said, play, play boldly.
He explained that in the past, when learning programming, you had to read books, tutorials, and exercises, which was incredibly tedious. But now with AI, if you want to make a website or a small tool, you can just go ahead and do it. If you don’t understand something, you can ask AI while doing it, and as you go, you’ll understand.
The host pressed on, asking, what if the thing you made is garbage? Peter shrugged and said, who said you have to be perfect the first time? Look at my OpenClaw; it was just a piece of garbage that I made in an hour at the beginning, but I had fun with it. Then slowly improved it, added features, and now it has become the fastest-growing project in GitHub's history.
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Finally, let's talk about how amazing Peter and his OpenClaw are. OpenClaw is actually just a chatbot that Peter built in an hour over the weekend, and it set the record for the fastest growth in GitHub history in just three months, with a terrifying 170,000 stars. Even more ridiculous is that when the project was exploding in popularity, he actually considered deleting the entire project himself, which is impressive. Just when he was on the brink of collapse, thankfully, Zuckerberg and Sam Altman both came knocking, offering an exorbitant offer to poach him...
I have to say, after watching the complete interview, I feel Peter is really amazing!
The end! Ready to continue pampering my little crayfish.