# Meta admits Muse copies OpenClaw's design

> Meta's new AI assistant Muse was heavily inspired by the open source project OpenClaw, the company now confirms.
- Title: Meta admits Muse copies OpenClaw's design · TechCrunch
- Summary: Meta's new AI assistant Muse was heavily inspired by the open source project OpenClaw, the company now confirms. Meta built Muse from scratch but…
- Keywords: meta, muse, openclaw, ai assistant, product inspiration, open source, nat friedman, peter steinberger, ai design, app store, technology, startups
- Source: TechCrunch — https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/22/meta-admits-muses-likeness-to-openclaw-isnt-a-coincidence
- Author: Sarah Perez
- Published: 2026-09-22T19:09:11+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: meta, muse, openclaw, ai assistant, product inspiration, open source, nat friedman, peter steinberger, ai design, app store, technology, startups
## Meta's Muse hits number one
Meta's new AI assistant Muse recently topped the U.S. App Store and is outpacing ChatGPT's launch when comparing platforms and market availability directly.
## Users spot OpenClaw similarities
Early adopters noticed Muse worked remarkably well and speculated it was OpenClaw, an open source AI project, running under the hood with a consumer-friendly wrapper.
## Viral post reveals matching files
AI app co-founder Ansh Nanda posted that Muse and OpenClaw shared identical system files, including a SOUL.md configuration file that defines an AI agent's personality and values.

> Muse is LITERALLY OpenClaw for normies.
## Meta confirms heavy inspiration
Nat Friedman, head of product at Meta's Superintelligence Labs, admitted Muse was definitely heavily inspired by OpenClaw but said it was built from scratch.

> Muse was "definitely heavily inspired as a product by OpenClaw."
## Why copy OpenClaw's design
Friedman said the Meta team fell in love with OpenClaw after using it in January and wanted to build something similar that could scale to billions of people safely and securely.

> we thought that Peter got those things exactly right.
## Friedman praises OpenClaw creator
Friedman called Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw's creator, a genius and said his design was pioneering from the start, inspiring many others in the field.

> @steipete is a genius, and his harness was pioneering from the jump.
## Meta's pattern of copying
This follows Meta's well-known playbook of taking promising products and copying their best features, most notoriously with Snapchat's stories format.
## Key takeaway

Meta built Muse from scratch but deliberately copied OpenClaw's architecture and file structure because the team believed the original creator got the design exactly right.