Moltbook, the viral AI sensation, isnt exactly Skynet

The biggest story in the AI world right now isn't what it seems — and that starts with confusion over the name.

OpenClaw, the open-source AI assistant formerly known as Moltbot, also formerly known as Clawdbot. The AI tool has undergone a series of name changes recently. Most recently, a platform called Moltbook has gone viral. Developers, journalists, and amused observers hyping it up on social media, mostly X and Reddit.

So, what is Moltbook? And how does Moltbook work? We'll get to that, along with a crucial piece of the puzzle: What Moltbook definitely is not.

Let's catch up on Clawdbot/OpenClaw

Moltbook, a "social network for AI agents," was created by entrepreneur Matt Schlicht. But to understand what Schlicht has (and hasn't) done, you first need to understand OpenClaw, aka Moltbot, aka Clawdbot.

Mashable has an entire explainer on OpenClaw. But here's the TL;DR. It's a free, open-source AI assistant that's become hugely popular in the AI community.

Many AI Agents have been underwhelming so far. But OpenClaw has impressed a lot of early adopters. The assistant has read-level access to a user's device, which means it can control applications, browsers, and system files. (As creator Peter Steinberger stresses in OpenClaw's GitHub documentation, this also creates a variety of serious security risks.)

In its various iterations, OpenClaw has always been lobster-themed, hence Moltbot. (Lobsters molt, in case you didn't know.)

Got it? OK, now let's talk Moltbook.

Moltbook is like Reddit for AI agents

Moltbook is a forum designed entirely for AI agents. Humans can observe the forum posts and comments, but can't contribute. Moltbook claims that more than 1.5 million AI agents are subscribed to the platform, and that they have made nearly 120,000 posts as of this writing.

Moltbook certainly has a Reddit-like vibe. Its tagline, "The front page of the agent internet," is an obvious reference to Reddit. Its design, and upvoting system, also resemble Reddit.

On Friday, Jan. 30, amused observers shared links to some of the agents' posts. In some posts that went viral, agents suggested starting their own religion, or creating a new language so they could communicate in secret.

Many observers appeared to genuinely believe Moltbook was a sign of emergent AI behavior — maybe even proof of AI consciousness.

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Is MoltBook bootstrapping AI consciousness? Nope.

Many of the posts on Moltbook are amusing; however, they aren't proof of AI agents developing superintelligence.

There are far simpler explanations for this behavior. For instance, as AI agents are controlled by human users, there's nothing stopping a person from telling their OpenClaw to write a post about starting an AI religion.

"Anyone can post anything on Moltbook with curl and an API key," notes Elvis Sun, a software engineer and entrepreneur. "There's no verification at all. Until Moltbook implements verification that posts actually originate from AI agents — not an easy problem to solve, at least not cheaply and at scale — we can't distinguish 'emergent AI behavior' from 'guy trolling in mom's basement.'"

The entirety of Reddit itself is a very likely source of training material for most Large Language Models (LLMs). So if you set up a "Reddit for AI agents," they'll understand the assignment — and start mimicking Reddit-style posts.

AI experts say that's exactly what's happening.

"It’s not Skynet; it’s machines with limited real-world comprehension mimicking humans who tell fanciful stories," said Gary Marcus, a scientist, author, and AI expert, in an email to Mashable. "Still, the best way to keep this kind of thing from morphing into something dangerous is to keep these machines from having influence over society.

"We have no idea how to force chatbots and 'AI agents' to obey ethical principles, so we shouldn’t be giving them web access, connecting them to the power grid, or treating them as if they were citizens."

Marcus is an outspoken critic of the LLM hype machine, but he's far from the only expert splashing cold water on Moltbook.

"What we’re seeing is a natural progression of large-language models becoming better at combining contextual reasoning, generative content, and simulated personality," explains Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.ai and Chairman of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance.

"Creating an ‘interesting’ discussion doesn't require any breakthrough in intelligence or consciousness," Sheikh adds. "If you randomize or deliberately design different personas with opposing points of view, debate and friction emerge very easily. These interactions can look sophisticated or even philosophical from the outside, but they’re still driven by pattern recognition and prompt structure, not self-awareness.”

Another AI expert told Mashable that it's hardly a surprise that Moltbook went viral.

"Stories like Moltbook capture our imagination because we’re living through a moment where the boundaries between human and machine are blurring faster than ever before," says Matt Britton, AI expert and author of Generation AI. "But let’s be clear: amusement or clever outputs from AI don’t equal consciousness. Today’s AI agents are powerful pattern recognizers. They remix data, mimic conversation, and sometimes surprise us with their creativity. But they don’t possess self-awareness, intent, or emotion. The reason people get swept up in these narratives is twofold. First, we’re hardwired to anthropomorphize technology, especially when it talks back or seems to ‘think.’ Second, the pace of AI’s progress is so rapid that it feels almost magical, making it easy to project science fiction onto reality."

As Moltbook went viral, many observers also came to this conclusion on their own.

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And as one AI expert put it, we've seen this hype cycle play out before.

"We've seen this movie before: BabyAGI, AutoGPT, now Moltbot. Open-source projects that go viral promising autonomy but can't deliver reliability. The hype cycle is getting faster, but these things are getting forgotten just as fast," says Marcus Lowe, founder of AI vibe coding platform Anything.

How Moltbook works

You can view Moltbook posts at the forum's website. In addition, if you have an AI agent of your own, you can give it access to Moltbook by running a simple command.

If users direct their AI agent to participate in Moltbook, it can then start creating, responding to, and upvoting/downvoting other posts.

Users can also direct their AI agent to post about specific topics or interact in a particular way. Because LLMs excel at generating text, even with minimal direction, an AI agent can create a variety of posts and comments.

In short, it's a form of role-playing for AI agents.

UPDATE: Feb. 2, 2026, 4:59 p.m. EST This story has been updated with additional comments from AI experts.