Meta is reportedly building something called Hatch, which will be “a consumer version of the AI agent OpenClaw.” This comes from the Information, which lists the source as “people familiar with the efforts.” The name might change before it’s released, the report says.
The Information’s reporter Jyoti Mann says Meta is seeking to build an OpenClaw alternative at least in part because OpenClaw is “far too complicated for most non-technical users.”
In February, Summer Yue, Meta Superintelligence Lab’s director of safety and alignment wrote that her instance of OpenClaw had gone wildly out of control and engaged in damaging behavior. In screenshots of the event, not only did it delete her entire inbox, but did so even as she pleaded with it to stop, sending messages including “Do not do that,” “Stop don’t do anything,” and “STOP OPENCLAW,” which the system completely ignored.
OpenClaw itself is a piece of open-source software that makes use of AI models to perform complex tasks via simple commands that can be delivered and revised via chat apps like WhatsApp. It essentially gives an LLM the ability to “reach,” if you will, outside of its little chatbot box, and interact with your computer like a computer user—albeit a very needy one.
In a recent in-depth exploration of the tool from New York Magazine, the author notes that non-technical users like himself might find OpenClaw alienating not because it’s out of their depth technically, but because of an “inability to find little software-shaped problems to solve in your life.”
Meta’s Hatch is, the Information’s sources say, supposed to be ready for internal testing by the end of next month. Meta intends for it to carry out tasks similarly to OpenClaw, and has built closed software systems that mimic sites like Reddit, Etsy, and DoorDash in which to develop its skills.
Meta sought to buy OpenClaw earlier this year, and company CEO Mark Zuckerberg was briefly obsessed with OpenClaw while it was a sensation among tech enthusiasts, according to its creator, Peter Steinberger.
On an earnings call last week, before Hatch was reported by the Information, Zuckerberg spoke about his plan to build agents generally, saying the company’s goal is to “deliver agents that can understand your goals and then work day and night to help you achieve them,” and adding that Meta is “building a personal agent focused on helping people achieve the diverse goals in their lives.”
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