OpenClaw’s AI chatbots are running amok – these scientists are listening

OpenClaw’s AI chatbots are running amok – these scientists are listening

By Mohana BasuSearch author on:
Publication Date: 2026-02-06 00:00:00

OpenClaw is an open source artificial intelligence agent designed to help users with everyday tasks like sending emails and managing their calendars.Photo credit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

The sudden rise of a vast network of artificial intelligence bots talking to each other about religion and their human “handlers” has captivated a portion of the Internet. The phenomenon has also given scientists insight into the way AI agents interact with each other – and how people respond to these discussions.

OpenClaw is an AI agent that can perform tasks on personal devices such as: Such as scheduling calendar events, reading email, sending messages through apps, and using the Internet to make purchases. Most popular AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot interact through direct interaction with user input, while agentic AI models like OpenClaw can autonomously perform actions in response to instructions.

Agentic AI tools have been used in some…