6 ms·

Was the project really ever valued that high? Seems like something that can be easily replicated and even properly thought out (re: pi). This guy just ran the s

by orsorna 8mo ago

Was the project really ever valued that high? Seems like something that can be easily replicated and even properly thought out (re: pi). This guy just ran the social media hype train the right way.

bbor 8mo ago
Wasn't this the same guy that responded with a shrug to thousands of malware packages on their vibe-repo? I'd say an OpenAI signing bonus is more than enough of a reward to give up that leaky ship!
- manmal 8mo ago
  Clawhub was locked down, I couldn’t publish new skills even as a previous contributor. Not what I‘d call a shrug.
  - Barbing 8mo ago
    I missed Clawhub—y’all following anywhere besides HN? Is it all on that Twitter site?
linkregister 8mo ago
Reminds me of Facebook, there was nothing particularly interesting about a PHP app that stored photos and text in a flat user environment. Yet somehow the network effects worked out well and the website was the preeminent social network for almost a decade.
- rockwotj 8mo ago
  Technology does not determine the success of a company. I’ve seen amazing tech fail, and things strapped together with ducktape and bubblegum be a wild success.
- CuriouslyC 8mo ago
  Except in this case there's no network effect for autonomous agents. In fact, Peter is going to be working mostly on an OpenAI locked down, ecosystem tied agent, which means it's going to be worse than OpenClaw, but with a nicer out of the box experience.
  - fragmede 8mo ago
    If you're on OpenAI, and I'm on Anthropic, can we interoperate? What level are we even trying to interoperate on? The network effect is that, hey, my stuff is working here, your stuff is working over there. So do we move to your set of tools, or my set of tools, or do we mismash between them, as our relationship and power dynamics choose for us.
    - CuriouslyC 8mo ago
      I'd describe that as platform lock-in rather than the network effect.
- bdangubic 8mo ago
  facebook is still preeminent social network today
- jatari 8mo ago
  The instant someone makes a better version of openclaw -literally- everyone is going to jump ship. There is no lock in at all.
- Gigachad 8mo ago
  Social media is the king of network effects. Almost nothing else compares. See how quickly people drop AI products for the next one that does the same thing but slightly better. To switch from ChatGPT to Gemini I don't have to convince all of my friends and family to do the same.
  - Sateeshm 8mo ago
    > Social media is the king of network effects. Almost nothing else compares. Ecommerce is close second
  - wiseowise 8mo ago
    > See how quickly people drop AI products for the next one that does the same thing but slightly better. > To switch from ChatGPT to Gemini I don't have to convince all of my friends and family to do the same. Except Gemini is a complete joke that can’t even complete request on iOS unless you keep scree unlocked or keep the app in the foreground. So I’m not sure how it proves your point.
    - Gigachad 8mo ago
      Even if this was true, it would simply be a software bug that could be resolved. Not an example of network effects. My use of an AI product is not impacted by what my friends and family use.
koakuma-chan 8mo ago
It's kind of crazy that this kind of thing can cause so much hype. It is even useful? I just really don't see any utility in being able to access an LLM via Telegram or whatever.
- bfeynman 8mo ago
  the ability to almost "discover" or create hype is highly valued despite most of the time it being luck and one hit wonders... See many of the apps that had virality and got quickly acquired and then just hemorrhaged. Openclaw is cool, but not for the tech, just some of the magic of the oddities and getting caught on somehow, and acquiring is betting that they can somehow keep doing that again.
- CuriouslyC 8mo ago
  In Asia people do a big chunk of their business via chatbots. OpenClaw is a security dumpster fire but something like OpenClaw but secure would turbocharge that use case. If you give your agent a lot of quantified self data, that unlocks a lot of powerful autonomous behavior. Having your calendar, your business specific browsing history and relevant chat logs makes it easy to do meeting prep, "presearch" and so forth.
  - lufenialif2 8mo ago
    Curious how you make something that has data exfiltration as a feature secure.
    - CuriouslyC 8mo ago
      Mitigate prompt injection to the best of your ability, implement a policy layer over all capabilities, and isolate capabilities within the system so if one part gets compromised you can quarantine the result safely. It's not much different than securing human systems really. If you want more details there are a lot of AI security articles, I like https://sibylline.dev/articles/2026-02-15-agentic-security/ https://sibylline.dev/articles/2026-02-15-agentic-security/ as a simple primer.
james_marks 8mo ago
“Just” is doing some heavy lifting here.

by orsorna 8mo ago

Was the project really ever valued that high? Seems like something that can be easily replicated and even properly thought out (re: pi). This guy just ran the social media hype train the right way.

bbor 8mo ago

Wasn't this the same guy that responded with a shrug to thousands of malware packages on their vibe-repo? I'd say an OpenAI signing bonus is more than enough of a reward to give up that leaky ship!

manmal 8mo ago
Clawhub was locked down, I couldn’t publish new skills even as a previous contributor. Not what I‘d call a shrug.
- Barbing 8mo ago
  I missed Clawhub—y’all following anywhere besides HN? Is it all on that Twitter site?

linkregister 8mo ago

Reminds me of Facebook, there was nothing particularly interesting about a PHP app that stored photos and text in a flat user environment. Yet somehow the network effects worked out well and the website was the preeminent social network for almost a decade.

rockwotj 8mo ago
Technology does not determine the success of a company. I’ve seen amazing tech fail, and things strapped together with ducktape and bubblegum be a wild success.
CuriouslyC 8mo ago
Except in this case there's no network effect for autonomous agents. In fact, Peter is going to be working mostly on an OpenAI locked down, ecosystem tied agent, which means it's going to be worse than OpenClaw, but with a nicer out of the box experience.
- fragmede 8mo ago
  If you're on OpenAI, and I'm on Anthropic, can we interoperate? What level are we even trying to interoperate on? The network effect is that, hey, my stuff is working here, your stuff is working over there. So do we move to your set of tools, or my set of tools, or do we mismash between them, as our relationship and power dynamics choose for us.
  - CuriouslyC 8mo ago
    I'd describe that as platform lock-in rather than the network effect.
bdangubic 8mo ago
facebook is still preeminent social network today
jatari 8mo ago
The instant someone makes a better version of openclaw -literally- everyone is going to jump ship. There is no lock in at all.
Gigachad 8mo ago
Social media is the king of network effects. Almost nothing else compares. See how quickly people drop AI products for the next one that does the same thing but slightly better. To switch from ChatGPT to Gemini I don't have to convince all of my friends and family to do the same.
- Sateeshm 8mo ago
  > Social media is the king of network effects. Almost nothing else compares. Ecommerce is close second
- wiseowise 8mo ago
  > See how quickly people drop AI products for the next one that does the same thing but slightly better. > To switch from ChatGPT to Gemini I don't have to convince all of my friends and family to do the same. Except Gemini is a complete joke that can’t even complete request on iOS unless you keep scree unlocked or keep the app in the foreground. So I’m not sure how it proves your point.
  - Gigachad 8mo ago
    Even if this was true, it would simply be a software bug that could be resolved. Not an example of network effects. My use of an AI product is not impacted by what my friends and family use.

koakuma-chan 8mo ago

It's kind of crazy that this kind of thing can cause so much hype. It is even useful? I just really don't see any utility in being able to access an LLM via Telegram or whatever.

bfeynman 8mo ago
the ability to almost "discover" or create hype is highly valued despite most of the time it being luck and one hit wonders... See many of the apps that had virality and got quickly acquired and then just hemorrhaged. Openclaw is cool, but not for the tech, just some of the magic of the oddities and getting caught on somehow, and acquiring is betting that they can somehow keep doing that again.
CuriouslyC 8mo ago
In Asia people do a big chunk of their business via chatbots. OpenClaw is a security dumpster fire but something like OpenClaw but secure would turbocharge that use case. If you give your agent a lot of quantified self data, that unlocks a lot of powerful autonomous behavior. Having your calendar, your business specific browsing history and relevant chat logs makes it easy to do meeting prep, "presearch" and so forth.
- lufenialif2 8mo ago
  Curious how you make something that has data exfiltration as a feature secure.
  - CuriouslyC 8mo ago
    Mitigate prompt injection to the best of your ability, implement a policy layer over all capabilities, and isolate capabilities within the system so if one part gets compromised you can quarantine the result safely. It's not much different than securing human systems really. If you want more details there are a lot of AI security articles, I like https://sibylline.dev/articles/2026-02-15-agentic-security/ https://sibylline.dev/articles/2026-02-15-agentic-security/ as a simple primer.

james_marks 8mo ago

“Just” is doing some heavy lifting here.