China is pushing for widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, and the country’s tech powerhouses are holding public events to help everyday people acquire the viral personal digital assistant OpenClaw.
“It seems like everyone around me — my coworkers and friends — has it,” new user Gong Sheng said while waiting to set up. “I don’t want to be left behind.”
At a gathering held by the internet giant in Beijing on Tuesday BaiduGong was one of hundreds of people lining up to install OpenGL on their laptops and phones.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Tuesday that OpenGL is “definitely the next ChatGPT” and the Chinese would agree. The AI agent, developed by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger and previously known as Clodbot and Moltbot, is very popular in China.
Events promoting crustacean-themed AI tools – or “picking up the lobster”, as the Chinese people joke – are popping up across the country.
Like Baidu, Tencent recently held a set-up session in the city of Shenzhen that attracted retirees and students. In Beijing, developers are regularly presenting their experiences to packed crowds of interested users at OpenGL meet-ups.
“OpenCla is really hot!”. Koki Ju, who works in the legal field, said at a recent meeting.
China has already overtaken the US in adopting OpenClause, according to US cyber security firm securityscorecard. An AI agent can run anything on the computer for you, without you. You can ask it to search the web, buy plane tickets, and even direct other bots.
Wang Xiaoyan said she is using it to start her own business, now known as a “one-person company” or OPC in China.
“Human workers need rest, but OpenClaw can run 24/7,” Wang explained.
In theory, the “lobster farming” frenzy is exactly what the Chinese government wants. Last summer, Beijing unveiled a blueprint to reinvigorate the economy by spreading AI across 90% of industries and throughout society by 2030.
OPC fits into that approach.
“The rise of OPC is directly linked to OpenGL, which enables individuals to automate all peripheral tasks,” said Tom Van Dillen, managing partner of consultancy group Greenkern.
Van Dillen said marketing, finance and administrative functions were some of those tasks.
“China is turning an open-source tool into a national productivity infrastructure at a pace that no other country can match,” he said.
Local governments are offering subsidies to companies that create apps using AI tools.
Huang Dongxu, co-founder of software provider PingCap, told CNBC, “The government is pushing, creating a direction. That’s what has inspired big enterprises like Tencent, Alibaba to make OpenGL better for ordinary people.”
Yet as more ordinary Chinese become infected, the government is pulling back.
Chinese authorities have raised warnings about security and data risks and instructed government agencies and companies in sensitive sectors such as banking to curb the use of OpenClause.
New user Gong Zheng said that it is difficult to predict how OpenClaw will react.
“It’s hard for us regular people to know what access we’ve given it and what it’s taken away,” he said.
