OpenClaw: Viral AI Assistant Rebrands Again, Tackles Security & Growth Challenges

• The open-source AI assistant, originally Clawdbot, has rebranded to OpenClaw after a brief period as Moltbot, following trademark checks and community feedback.
• Creator Peter Steinberger took extra steps to ensure the new name, OpenClaw, avoids trademark issues, consulting with OpenAI and researching extensively.
• OpenClaw has gained over 100,000 GitHub stars in two months, evolving from a personal experiment into a community-driven project with multiple maintainers.
• Spin-off projects like Moltbook, a social platform for AI agents, highlight the project's innovation but also raise security concerns due to AI agents executing instructions from the open internet.
• Security remains a major challenge; OpenClaw is not yet safe for mainstream use, with maintainers warning non-technical users due to risks like prompt injection attacks.

Why It Matters: OpenClaw, a rapidly growing open-source AI, rebrands, faces security hurdles, and seeks community funding.