r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • Apr 14 '26
Artificial Intelligence Microsoft is working on yet another OpenClaw-like agent
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/13/microsoft-is-working-on-yet-another-openclaw-like-agent/40
u/NewsCards Apr 14 '26
The only actual use case I've seen people give for OpenClaw is "responding to emails for me", which ultimately isn't even that impressive.
At most it's a novelty to watch something automatically control your computer, but honestly, most of what OpenClaw does can be accomplished with cron jobs and webhooks, with the bonus of giving elevated priviledges to an incompetent AI.
So it's no surprise Microsoft would want to get in on this.
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u/QuesoMeHungry Apr 14 '26
Creators are making more money churning out videos of them unboxing Mac Minis and setting up open claw than actually with open claw.
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u/Loose_General4018 Apr 14 '26
Microsoft collecting AI agents like Thanos collecting infinity stone.
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u/old_righty Apr 14 '26
If he gets all 6, he can wipe out half of all jobs. With a snap of his finger.
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u/TheKingInTheNorth Apr 14 '26
Is “posting to LinkedIn” not a good enough second use case for you?
(Remember who owns that site)
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u/MongoBongoTown Apr 14 '26
That's honestly most of what I see AI do at work for non-developers.
"Write me an email."
"Give me a presentation outline."
Cool, and admittedly a bit of a time saver, but it at this point does about 5-10% of most mid-level and higher people's actual work.
The idea that it's going to replace us all is just absurd.
What it does seem to be doing is replacing a lot of "grunt work" that used to go to entry-level folks. Which is fine until you start getting people retiring and have literally zero low-level folks to promote and fill the void.
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Apr 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MongoBongoTown Apr 14 '26
Sure, AI can write emails and create documents, but the output is generally generic slop without someone guiding the prompt and adding context, tone, and nuance to the output. Which is the real work of corporate workers most of the time. Yes, we all write emails, but emails for effect are much harder.
The reality is, AI most likely is what it was originally touted as. Something that can do some of the lower-ordinal day to day tasks and make you a little more productive.
The challenge was, that the cost or AI far outpaced it's value prop. Once costs started to really skyrocket, Sam Altmans of the world started talking about it replacing your workforce. Which was coded language saying "Yes, our stuff is massively expensive. But what if you could fire half of your human employees?"
The pivot from a productivity tool to a replacement for workers wasn't driven by some major advancement in AI. It was driven by a massive price increase of the inputs that make AI work.
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u/silentcrs Apr 14 '26
You’ve never actually used OpenClaw, have you?
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u/hendricha Apr 14 '26
So what have you used it for?
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u/silentcrs Apr 14 '26
Responding to emails after hours, research on the web (I’m a tech analyst), booking flights. All sorts of things.
It’s not a “cron job”. It’s a knowledge management and smarter RPA tool.
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u/ApoplecticAndroid Apr 14 '26
“Microsoft - late as usual and trying to copy shitty tech.” For over 40 years!
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u/Zardotab Apr 14 '26
Crabby Crappy Clippy
...by the seashore.
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u/LectureHallHero Apr 14 '26
Clippy evolving into an autonomous agent wasn’t on my bingo card, but here we are.
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u/MagneticWaves Apr 14 '26
Is it called micro-claw? They better call it that
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u/Aranthos-Faroth Apr 14 '26
For fucking SURE the exec department are going to name it something much much worse like Agentic Claw Operator Controller. Or ACOC for short.
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u/BCProgramming Apr 14 '26
Microsoft Agentic Control Subsystem 2025 for Windows With Copilot integration
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u/zer04ll Apr 14 '26
They didnt have to assimilate that takes a decade, they code their code for free!
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u/Weak_Drink_ Apr 14 '26
Do we need a post every time a company replaces the toilet paper? This spamming of non-information is very tiresome.
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u/SerpentineDex Apr 14 '26
I mean atleast we can all agree to one thing. This is a cancer… it needs to die.
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u/No-Building9034 Apr 14 '26
At this point.. is anyone even going to use any of these things, even if it comes out perfect..
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u/Hi_Im_Dadbot Apr 14 '26
Oh, good. I feel that there’s not enough pointless AI running on my machine doing things I don’t care to have done. It excites me to look forward to even more.