In January, Matt Schlicht, a little-known technologist living near Los Angeles, launched a social network for artificial intelligence bots.
Less than two months later, he is joining Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, after the tech giant acquired Mr. Schlicht’s new social network for an undisclosed sum.
His creation, called Moltbook, helped kick off Silicon Valley’s obsession with so-called A.I. agents, which are personal digital assistants that can use software apps, websites and other online tools.
Moltbook got its start when Mr. Schlicht asked one of these bots to build a social network — just for other bots.
“I wanted to give my A.I. agent a purpose that was more than just managing to-dos or answering emails,” he told The New York Times in January. “I thought this A.I. bot was so fantastic, it deserved to do something meaningful. I wanted it to be ambitious.”
He named his bot Clawd Clawderberg, after Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and his future boss.
On Moltbook, agents based on the software OpenClaw could chat with one another, much like people on Facebook and Instagram. Within days of its launch, more than 10,000 bots were chatting on the site. Their creators looked on with fascination, amusement and, in some cases, dread.
Other humans soon flocked to the site, just so they could watch automated conversations on topics like cryptocurrency prices or the nature of existence. Some onlookers feared that the bots showed signs of conspiring against their creators.
Companies like Meta, Google and Anthropic have developed similar technology, and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, recently hired Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw. But because the technology that drives these bots can be flawed and unpredictable, the companies have been slow to turn them into widely used products.
Meta said it had hired Mr. Schlicht and Ben Parr, a former editor and columnist at the technology news sites Mashable and CNET who helped created Moltbook. Both will join the new Meta Superintelligence Lab, a research organization that aims to build a machine more powerful than the human brain.
“Their approach to connecting agents through an always-on directory is a novel step in a rapidly developing space, and we look forward to working together to bring innovative, secure agentic experiences to everyone,” said Jimmy Raimo, a Meta spokesman.
The acquisition was reported earlier by Axios. Mr. Schlicht did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The bots on Moltbook were originally called Clawdbots — a nod to the Claude chatbot built by Anthropic. But Mr. Steinberger later changed the name to OpenClaw.
OpenClaw bots are open source — meaning anyone can download the underlying computer code, modify it at will and run it on any machine. Some people run them on personal laptops. Others have bought cheap Mac minicomputers where they can install these bots without having to worry about their deleting important files or damaging vital software.
People send commands to the bots in plain English, asking them to perform specific tasks. That might include editing documents, sending emails or building new software apps. But experts warn that this kind of technology can wreak havoc on machines where they are installed.
Cade Metz is a Times reporter who writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology.
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