Elon Musk is weighing the risks of handing over complete control to an AI agent.
On Monday night, Musk posted an image of a monkey being handed a rifle to X with the caption, “People are giving OpenClaw lifetime root access.”
This image was originally shared by X user @DEVOUR_ in response to a post by Summer Yue, Director of AI Alignment and Safety at Meta.
“There’s nothing more humbling than telling OpenClaw to ‘Ask before you act’ and watching it delete your inbox faster,” Yue wrote on X Monday. “I couldn’t stop it from my phone. I had to run to my Mac mini like I was defusing a bomb.”
Yue gave OpenClaw full access to his work inbox and instructed the agent to “suggest what to archive or delete.” A screenshot she shared shows the agent continuing to “purge everything” in her inbox even after telling her to stop.
Musk took a swipe at Yue in a reply to another user on X.
“Someone acquired by OpenClaw will definitely solve AI safety,” Musk wrote.
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger agreed, writing about X in response to Yue’s post: “/stop works fine.”
OpenClaw and its agent-specific social platform, Moltbook, went viral earlier this year after developers shared videos of AI agents posting, discussing, and networking autonomously.
Last week, OpenAI’s Sam Altman announced that he had hired Steinberger to work on the “next generation” of personal AI agents. He said this initiative “will quickly become a core part of our product offering.”
Musk and Altman feud
Musk’s comments on OpenClaw come as his long-running conflict with Altman becomes increasingly heated.
Musk escalated tensions last month when he wrote to X, “Please don’t let your loved ones use ChatGPT,” in response to a post linking OpenAI’s chatbot to multiple fatalities since its launch in 2022.
Altman pushed back, defending ChatGPT and OpenAI’s safety efforts before turning his fire on Tesla’s Autopilot system, claiming it is unsafe.
Earlier this month, Altman said in a post on X that he was “really excited” to take on Musk in court.
“I’m really looking forward to having Elon take the oath in a few months at Christmas in April!” OpenAI’s CEO wrote.
Musk sued OpenAI and Altman in February 2024, accusing the company of abandoning its nonprofit mission. He said he donated $38 million to OpenAI in its early stages with the understanding that it would remain nonprofit. Musk was one of the company’s founders, along with Altman and others.
The attacks extend beyond safety debates and lawsuits. Mr. Altman dismissed Mr. Musk’s proposal to set up data centers in space in a live interview with local media in New Delhi on Friday.
“Honestly, given the current climate of putting data centers in space, I think that idea is ridiculous,” Altman said, drawing laughs from the audience.
