OpenAI has recently hired Peter Steinberger, the Austrian creator of the AI agent tool OpenClaw, which is designed to execute real-world tasks. This announcement, made by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is viewed as a strategic move to enhance personal AI agents. Altman praised Steinberger as a 'genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people.' Notably, OpenClaw will remain an open-source project, a decision that contrasts with typical acqui-hire practices and aims to preserve community goodwill while fostering innovation in the AI landscape. Steinberger himself stated, 'I want to change the world, not build a large company,' reflecting a commitment to democratizing access to advanced AI technologies.