From The Verge · Hayden Field · · 2m
Meta's Muse borrows heavily from OpenClaw
Meta's new AI agent Muse shares file names and design with the open-source platform that inspired the entire industry.
In brief
Meta's new AI agent Muse shares file names and design with the open-source platform that inspired the entire industry. Meta's Muse AI agent closely mirrors OpenClaw's design and code structure, though Meta claims it was built from scratch while acknowledging heavy inspiration from the open-source predecessor…
Meta's new AI agent tops the charts
Muse reached number one on the App Store and has six hundred thousand daily active users in the US within weeks of launch.
Users spot similarities to OpenClaw
Social media users claim Muse uses identical file names and code lines as OpenClaw, the open-source platform that started the AI agent boom.
“Be genuinely helpful, not performatively helpful”
Meta acknowledges the inspiration
Nat Friedman, head of product for Meta's Superintelligence Labs, says Muse was built from scratch but is heavily inspired by OpenClaw.
Friedman explains the shared code
After using OpenClaw in January, Friedman bought hundreds of Mac Minis for his team. He kept OpenClaw's file names because creator Peter Steinberger got them exactly right.
Instinct follows a similar path
AI agent platform Instinct, valued at two point five billion dollars, uses OpenClaw's messaging-based approach for everyday personal assistant tasks.
OpenClaw changed the game in ten months
Built as a one-man weekend project, OpenClaw went from proof of concept to genuinely useful in ten months, gaining two million visitors and one hundred thousand GitHub stars.
Big Tech raced to catch up
OpenAI hired Steinberger in February. Google, Apple, and Meta all launched their own AI agents by September, following OpenClaw's lead.
Security was OpenClaw's fatal flaw
Fifteen percent of OpenClaw's skill repository contained malicious instructions. Meta claims Muse is built from the ground up for privacy and security.
But Muse has its own security gaps
Meta can still access user data in Muse's isolated VM. A zero-day vulnerability this week allows attackers to hijack the agent entirely.
The real improvement is accessibility
Muse and Instinct succeed by making AI agents easier to use through familiar platforms like Meta's systems and Apple's messaging app.
Big Tech now controls what was grassroots
OpenClaw users once saw the platform as an escape from Big Tech control. Now those same companies are putting up a fight with their own versions.
The big picture
Meta's Muse AI agent closely mirrors OpenClaw's design and code structure, though Meta claims it was built from scratch while acknowledging heavy inspiration from the open-source predecessor.
