State of the Claw — Peter Steinberger
Apr 17, 2026 · 44:12
Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, presents a five-month update on the world's fastest-growing open-source project. He details the project's staggering growth—30,000 commits, nearly 2,000 contributors—and the immense security burden: 1,142 advisories (16.6 per day) with 99 critical, often AI-generated slop that demands human vetting. Steinberger refutes media fearmongering, citing how researchers ignore security docs to fabricate scary scenarios. He clarifies OpenAI did not buy OpenClaw; he joined the company while establishing the OpenClaw Foundation to remain vendor-neutral. He emphasizes the importance of local models for data sovereignty and describes his coding workflow of running 5-6 agent sessions simultaneously, iterating on taste and personality. Future visions include ubiquitous agents, 'Dreaming' for memory reconciliation, and modular plugins. For engineers, he champions taste, system design, and learning to say no.
