Meta and other tech companies are restricting the use of the experimental AI tool OpenClaw due to security concerns, while OpenAI has acquired its creator, Peter Steinberger, signaling a shift in the AI landscape. This move comes as the chatbot era may be coming to an end, according to VentureBeat, with OpenAI making a significant investment in the future of AI agents.

Jason Grad, a tech executive, warned his 20 employees at his startup last month about OpenClaw, formerly known as MoltBot and Clawdbot. He expressed concerns about the tool's unvetted nature and potential risks, advising against its use on company hardware and work-linked accounts, according to Wired. A Meta executive echoed these concerns, telling his team to avoid OpenClaw on work laptops or risk job loss, citing the software's unpredictability and potential for privacy breaches.

The acquisition of OpenClaw's creator by OpenAI represents a significant bet on the future of AI agents. Peter Steinberger announced he would be joining OpenAI to "work on bringing agents to everyone," as reported by VentureBeat. While the OpenClaw project will transition to an independent foundation, OpenAI will sponsor it and potentially influence its direction. This shift suggests a move away from focusing solely on what AI models can say, towards what they can do.

In related news, the complexity of building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems for AI agents, which often involves multiple layers and technologies, is being addressed by SurrealDB. The company launched version 3.0 of its namesake database, aiming to simplify the process of managing data layers for context and memory in agentic AI systems, according to VentureBeat.

This news comes as other issues are also in the news. In a separate incident, a verbal altercation broke out during a curling match at the Winter Olympics, with a Canadian vice-skip and a Swedish third thrower exchanging heated words, as reported by Wired. Additionally, an online forum for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers has been the site of complaints about colleagues in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to Wired.