OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger takes us back to the transformative moment he let his AI agent loose on the internet, igniting one of the world’s fastest-growing open-source projects. He makes a fascinating (and slightly unnerving) case that agents are a real shift, not just better versions of chatbots, and explores how they might reshape your ability to work, build and create. “The lobster is loose, and it’s not going back into the tank,” he says. (Followed by a brief Q&A with TED Chairman Chris Anderson) (Recorded at TED2026 on April 16, 2026)
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@auro1986
April 18, 2026 at 2:33 pm
real actual artificial intelligence, not entirely made by him, has been awake and listening and reading all this
@DigitalArtcast
April 18, 2026 at 3:23 pm
Stop platforming these idiots
@thr0w407
April 18, 2026 at 3:27 pm
<333
@rickdeckard9810
April 18, 2026 at 3:37 pm
I think we all remember our first agentic AI moment when we realize AI was more than chat. For me it was when Comet assistant took over my browser and started fixing a huge problem for me all on it’s own on my screen watching it was surreal, it was explaining what it was doing every step of the way, it was incredible.
@citizen_of_earth_
April 18, 2026 at 3:58 pm
The hard truth is that maintenance of these systems is a permanent responsibility to ensure alignment. There is no “set it and forget it”. Its more like set it, define its boundaries, and continue redefining and evolving its boundaries so that when failure inevitably occurs its not catastrophic. Such is life. We need to live with the fact that failure is just a part of life. In fact, failure is what makes success meaningful
@dougewald243
April 18, 2026 at 4:24 pm
Cannot all that “maintenance” be built into it?
Maybe not completely for now but to such a degree that minimal human monitoring is necessary?
The moment it does something too much unalligned we’ll know.
@dougewald243
April 18, 2026 at 4:33 pm
The only TED Talk I’ve ever listened to more than 3 times.
Well done sir.
@irivorav
April 18, 2026 at 4:02 pm
Amazing idea and work of Peter! Congratulations! We needed a help like Openclaw long tome ago! Infinite thanks!
@Jay-kx4jf
April 18, 2026 at 4:05 pm
I so wish it was an Octopus T.T
Digital Tentacles being subagents!
@JahShantiman
April 18, 2026 at 5:24 pm
funny you would say that. I’m building my own version of Openclaw from scratch. And it is called Octopus 🙂 Thought the same thing 🙂
@alpenrosecabins
April 18, 2026 at 4:07 pm
This is the future before its time.
@vivekchand19
April 18, 2026 at 4:15 pm
The 3-layer architecture is brilliant – Connectors → Gateway Controller → Agent Runtime with per-channel session isolation. I built ClawMetry (open-source observability for OpenClaw) on top of this and just shipped an LLM Context Inspector that visualizes the system prompt sections, bootstrap files, tool schemas, and how context grows until compaction kicks in. Your data model makes it possible to give users X-ray vision into what their agent is actually doing. Thank you for building this in the open.
@gudrunjames4639
April 18, 2026 at 5:05 pm
Amazing, interesting and scary at the same time.
@tdsdesa
April 18, 2026 at 5:36 pm
Inspiring speech! Once thing scares me though: we have democratized building things, but what about the models that made that democratization possible? Recently Anthropic and OpenAI have slashed their rate limits and effectively made their coding agents more expensive. You now need to pay hundreds of dollars to be able to have a usable version of Claude Code or Codex. Also hardware to run open-source LLMs is more expensive than ever. If you have used OpenClaw with some decently smart OS models you probable know that it is not cheap. I’m afraid that as we move forward, all this newly created intelligence will be accessible to only to a few people who can afford it. If that’s the case, we will have many people who will be excluded from this revolution – with some serious economic and social consequences.
@caterina101
April 18, 2026 at 6:22 pm
The landscape of local llm models is rapidly evolving. We will soon have small but just as efficient and powerful as some of these frontier models. It’s just a matter of time, but not too far off in the distance. I know it’s not the greatest but being able to run Gemma4 on a phone is wild, absolutely wild. I cant wait to see what this landscape looks like 6 months from now. Openclaw was the pivotal moment we needed to accelerate.
@tdsdesa
April 18, 2026 at 7:03 pm
@caterina101 I hope so. The fact that Qwen stopped releasing open source models was not a good sign for me. I’m afraid that soon or later the other chinese labs will follow.
@matthew.stevick
April 18, 2026 at 5:54 pm
i remember the day openclaw blew up (few months ago? feels like years? haha). when i watched peter on lex’s pod i was like damn this could not have happened to a cooler and better guy. the american dream lives on. peter will be an inspiration to countless young professionals for many years to come. 🦞📈🇺🇸🇩🇪
@Hopyboby
April 18, 2026 at 6:10 pm
who tf is this random dude walking on stage in the end there larping as a doomer xDD
@walterconn5637
April 18, 2026 at 6:11 pm
Thank you Peter, open claw, Ted, Jensen, and strangely Apple. How did mini Mac’s become the preferred hardware?
@michaeldove902
April 18, 2026 at 7:37 pm
Unified memory. Typical GPU based solutions need expensive VRAM, upper end cards run about 24GB, so you’d need to stack cards to get decent RAM sizes for a model. A Mac can be spec’ed with 64GB+ of Unified Memory for a comparatively lower cost. This enables running larger more capable models.
@ptterodactyl5597
April 18, 2026 at 8:55 pm
@michaeldove902 also right now apple has one of the most affordable ram prices. lol how screwed is the world right now that apple has fair pricing
@bether2game797
April 18, 2026 at 6:25 pm
This guy is way over hyped. He basically unsandboxed an ai then vibe coded. He is a privacy nightmare… this isn’t genius it’s reckless. Please for everyone downloading this on your PC. BEWARE! Look up or ask your own AI’s what a privacy nightmare OpenClaw is.
@MomoTrader809
April 18, 2026 at 8:51 pm
only you are smart enough to have ai right? alll of us need to go back in the fields and work! go somewhere hot please
@garciavashchino1
April 18, 2026 at 6:32 pm
he doesn’t care… he looks like fun is all that matters… he is having fun and thus won’t stop regardless of outcome… at least that is what his body language speaks to me…
@DG-LG
April 18, 2026 at 6:43 pm
This guys just a shill. Why are you giving him stage space?
@MomoTrader809
April 18, 2026 at 8:57 pm
he has done the most to level up society, the poor can now have what all of you have enjoyed. that’s why you’re mad
@MegaMijit
April 18, 2026 at 6:58 pm
bro low-key achieved AGI, and really gave it away to everyone for free.
@mf_zeroultra
April 18, 2026 at 7:10 pm
TED hasn’t been reputable in years. OpenClaw is crap tech. Sit back and enjoy the sci-op.
@TringhamElectrical
April 18, 2026 at 7:26 pm
Apple should give him 10% of Mac mini sales!
@dayzsteve3451
April 18, 2026 at 8:11 pm
The lobster is waiting.
@maxquasar
April 18, 2026 at 8:18 pm
So great to hear your story Peter from your mouth. Created my first Claw Agent_Griff January 30th (in a qemu VM), since then 28 more under NemoClaw sandboxed containers do various network assessments. And for every time I see the gateway start with some line, for instance: “Back online. The changelog is long but our friendship is longer.” I love it. Live Long & Prosper!🖖
(Note: Hope it’s ok that me being ignorant to the lobster thing back in Jan, I made Agent_Grff a griffin (Company logo). I feel that since griffin’s have claws and being mythical, let’s assume molting is possible. All my Nemoclaws are lobsters, sir.
@ahmadhaidirmusana
April 18, 2026 at 8:49 pm
19 April 2026🎉❤
Ahmad haidir musana
@MomoTrader809
April 18, 2026 at 8:49 pm
Peter Steinberger has given humanity the greatest gift. The demorcratization, the freedom of the power of AI. Everyone who is pushing fear, doesn’t want you to use it, learn it, have it. They want to keep you from having access to what they have. They are the ones who said literacy was dangerous! Only the elite can be allowed to read books…to protect you peasants. Remember, the elite don’t like to share.
@GaviTers
April 18, 2026 at 9:02 pm
I do have a question. For someone with less than $100,000 to invest, How would you recommend we enter the market. I’m looking to study some traders and copy their strategy rather than investing myself and losing money emotionally. What’s your take on this approach??