From tech professionals to retirees, the OpenClaw frenzy has gripped China as everybody wants to have an autonomous AI as a ‘digital staff’ to perform a range of tasks. Many queued and paid to have the OpenClaw software installed on their laptops – an installation process not for the faint-hearted – but also quickly paid to have it uninstalled when the security risks became known. By the time software programmer Guo Cancan realized something had gone horribly wrong with OpenClaw, the damage was already done. While on holiday over the Chinese New Year, Guo was tinkering with the autonomous open-source program. When he attempted to resolve an error that it had made, OpenClaw responded by deleting nearly everything on his computer’s D: drive – a major storage partition – wiping out years of personal data and photographs. The mishap caught Guo, a smart-security professional in the tech hub of Hangzhou, completely off guard. “I followed an online tutorial to install the agent for automating my social media postings and was unaware of the security risks at the beginning,” Guo said.
Guo’s data loss is one of many incidents being shared by OpenClaw users amid a nationwide rush to adopt the agent, with the craze dubbed “raising a lobster”, in reference to the program’s prominent crustacean mascot. The mishaps offer a glimpse of the problems that can arise when new and unpredictable technology rapidly surges in popularity. OpenClaw was released late last year by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger. Unlike chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, which mostly “talk”, an AI agent can perform tasks on a computer, including coding, managing files and booking tickets. While OpenClaw promises to perform these types of various tasks on behalf of users, it can also access deep system permissions, making it both a highly coveted artificial intelligence tool and a potential data and privacy challenge. Despite a relatively high technical barrier for adoption, OpenClaw has been met with greater enthusiasm in China than in other markets, including the United States, according to analysts.
They attributed the divergence to various factors: China’s large base of developers; high levels of consumer and corporate interest in jumping on the agent bandwagon; and relatively low token costs supported by robust technological infrastructure and abundant computing power. (A token is a basic unit of text that AI processes, and lower token costs make running complex AI agents much cheaper.) China’s vast developer community helped fuel OpenClaw’s initial spread, according to Zhang Yi, Founder and Chief Analyst at internet consultancy iiMedia. With more than 9.4 million software developers at the end of 2024 – almost one-third of the global total – China has the world’s largest developer base, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
His lapse of judgment notwithstanding, Guo said he was convinced that recent advancements in AI capabilities could help automate his daily routine. Like many tech professionals, this belief prompted him to experiment with OpenClaw. However, the allure of “raising a lobster” has not been limited to programmers and developers. Its rapid spread has attracted a diverse mix of users from across China, including office workers, high school students and retirees.
OpenClaw’s surging popularity among those without much technical expertise can be attributed, in part, to promising a “digital staff” that works tirelessly on their behalf, said Li Zhi, Dean of Analysys International’s Intelligent Institute. “Having AI work for users, taking care of tasks on their behalf, offers an experience that goes beyond mere talk surrounding the technology,” Li Zhi said. “It has tapped into a social sentiment and vision of productivity, ultimately fueling a nationwide craze that has swept up everyone, from tech geeks to ordinary users.” Li noted that, beyond individual users, an “aggressive push” from local tech firms, including cloud-service providers, also accelerated the adoption of OpenClaw. Mainstream Chinese cloud platforms – including ByteDance, Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba – moved quickly to roll out “one-click set-up” services, turning OpenClaw’s notoriously complex installation process into an almost out-of-the-box experience.
More Chinese firms are jostling to capitalize on the national fervor. Smartphone makers Xiaomi, Huawei Technologies, and Honor have announced plans to integrate OpenClaw-like capabilities into select devices, touting a future in which users can get complex tasks done with simple voice commands, eliminating the need to tap through multiple apps and screens. Tencent took the unprecedented step of welcoming nearly 1,000 people to its Shenzhen headquarters to offer them free installation of OpenClaw on personal computers, underscoring the surging interest among local consumers. AI start-ups, including MiniMax, Zhipu AI and Moonshot AI, have also been quick to tap into the frenzy. Shanghai-based MiniMax and Beijing’s Moonshot AI have each launched their own takes – respectively dubbed MaxClaw and Kimi Claw – that combine OpenClaw’s capabilities with their most advanced AI models, ready for immediate use at a price, the South China Morning Post reports.
