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I’m joining OpenAI

steipete.me

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Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#711
post #533

Can someone explain what value openclaw provides over like claude code? It seems like it's literally just a repackaged claude code (i.e. a for loop around claude) with a model selector (and I guess a few builtin 'tools' for web browsing?)

The main one is that you can run and/or host it remotely, unlike Claude Desktop. By this I mean, you can run OpenClaw on a service like Tailscale and protect your actual machine from certain security/privacy concerns and - regardless of the choice - you can connect your access to OpenClaw via any chat agent or SSH tunnel, so you can access it from a phone. If Claude Cowork comes to iOS/Android with a tunnel option, t…

OpenClaw is probably overkill if you just want to have a nice remote UI to access claude code, do tool call approvals. There are a ton of remote cli apps and guides to setup ssh access via tailscale etc, but none that just work with a nice remote web interface.

For me personally I can't stand interacting with agents via CLI and fixed width fonts so I built a e2e encrypted remote interface that has a lot of the nice UI feature you would expect from a first class UI like Claude Vscode extension (syntax highlighting, streaming, etc). You can self host it. But it's a little no dependencies node server that you can just npm install (npm i -g yepanywhere)

https://github.com/kzahel/yepanywhere

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was obvious, yet nobody seemed to have released a version people could actually easily use. The feature set is pretty simple: - Agents that can write their own tools. - Agents that can write their own skills. - Agents that can chat via standard chat apps. - Agents that can install and use cli software. - Agents that can have a bit of state on disk.

> nobody seemed to have released a version people could actually easily use Yet I’ve known many people who have said it is difficult to use; this was a 0.01-0.1% adoption tool. There is still a huge ease of use gap to cross to make it adopted in 10-50% of computer users.

thats by design, you know all those huge security implications. now image if it was so easy to setup and install and use.

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#713
post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you get hired for your proven ability to (…) No, you get hired for your perceived ability to (…) The world is full of Juliuses, which is a big reason everything sucks. https://ploum.net/2024-12-23-julius-en.html

> perceived ability In this case at least it's definitely more than that. Ever since LLMs became a thing, there has been a constant search to find it's "killer app". Given the steep rise in popularity, regardless of the problems, that is now OpenClaw. As they say, the proof's in the pudding; this guy has created something highly desirable by the many.

Yet, people are still asking for the usability of OpenClaw outside of marketing. It's a bit unclear how much of a "killer app" it really is, and how much is just burning money for the lulz and Bot RP. I personally also got the impression many people had their first AI-gateway experience with OpenClaw, and don't understand that those abilities have been around for a while now, but is located in the expensive LLMs which OpenClaw is using, not in OpenClaw itself. I've seen people thinking that OpenClaw is actually the AI.

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny to me how still so many don't realize you don't get hired for the best positions for being a 10x programmer who excels at hackerrank, you get hired for your proven ability to deliver useful products. Creativity, drive, vision, whatever. Code is a means to an end. If you're the type of programmer who thinks of yourself as just a programmer, and take pride in your secure code, ability to optimize functions a…

I was nodding my head agreeing with you but then remembered John Carmack, who seems to deliver both... He takes great pride in writing ground breaking code, for industry defining products. We should all try and be more like John Carmack.

Another detail is that his groundbreaking code was great part of made some of the products - I'm thinking of Doom.

It wasn't just for the sake of quality and best practices, it defined and had an impact on the product experience.

Like Doom probably wouldn't have been as successful if it was any other way.

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#716

I'm happy for the guy, but am I jealous as well? Well yes, and that's perfectly human. We have someone who vibe coded software with major security vulnerabilities. This is reported by many folks We also have someone who vibecoded without reading any of the code. This is self admitted by this person. We don't know how much of the github stars are bought. We don't know how many twitter followings/tweets are bought. The…

It's the old story: evil, irresponsible behaviour has a higher chance of success, than being good and responsible. AIs recent history is a good example. Google had the lead, but lost it (temporary) to OpenAI, because Google was responsible and were not willing to open pandoras box. Apple seems to have something similar to OpenClaw for a while now, but withholds from releasing it, because it's too unsecure. History is full of people burning the world for their own greed, and getting rewarded for it; and they then call it "taking risks" and "thinking outside the box"... I think the underlying reason might be in too many people thinking there is some level of competence behind the irresponsible behaviour and it's alls just controlled harm or something like that.

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#717

With OpenClaw we are seeing how the app layer becomes as important as the model layer. You can switch models multiple times (online/proprietary, open weight, local), but you have one UI : OpenClaw.

There’s actually many UI’s now? See moltis, rowboat, and various others that are popping up daily

I think the point was about the frequency of switching your frontend. With a proper frontend you can switch the backend on each request if you want, but usually people will stay with one main-interface of their choice. For AI, OpenClaw, Moltic, Rowboat are now such a frontend, but not many will use them all at once.

It's similar to how people usually only use one preferred browser, editor, shell, OS.

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#718

Good move. OpenClaw is alpha quality, very dangerous, super useful and super fun - which amplifies the danger. It’s a disaster waiting to happen and a massive risk for a solo dev to take on. So best to trade it for a killer job offer and transfer all that risk. To get a sense of what this guy was going through listen to the first 30 mins of Lex’s recent interview with him. The cybersquatting and token/crypto bullshit…

He's not really trading anything though. He was hired by OpenAI. OpenClaw will remain free and open source (it's the first line of his blog post). He says that OpenAI will allow him to work on it and already sponsors it so maybe that means he'll have time to improve it, I guess.

Given he's moving to SF to work in their office I presume part of it is he'll be working in-house on their commercial replacement, and will continue to cover costs on the OSS version which he's free to work on. His recent posts make it clear they've got plans for their own stuff to replace it.

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#719

at this point idk what openclaw does and am afraid to ask but great for him

Every time this is brought up I have to go read up on it again, assuming I just didn’t get it last time.

And every time I reach the same conclusion: it's a WhatsApp/Telegram/etc wrapper for LLMs.

Until next time!

Re: I’m joining OpenAI

#720

I'm happy for the guy, but am I jealous as well? Well yes, and that's perfectly human. We have someone who vibe coded software with major security vulnerabilities. This is reported by many folks We also have someone who vibecoded without reading any of the code. This is self admitted by this person. We don't know how much of the github stars are bought. We don't know how many twitter followings/tweets are bought. The…

Really surprised by all the comments here, they didnt hire him because of the amazing security openclawd had, but because he's one of the first one's who made a truly personal assistant that's actually valueable to people.

It's about what he created, not what he didnt create.

They're not acquiring the product he built, they're acquiring the product vision.

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