Meta, the firm behind a few of the world’s hottest social media platforms, just scooped up a brand new website – for bots.
Meta has acquired Moltbook, the social media network the place AI brokers work together with each other autonomously, the firm stated in an announcement on Tuesday.
Meta is competing with rivals like OpenAI for each expertise and customers’ consideration. And as AI expands into extra facets of Americans’ lives, tech firms try to determine the greatest option to place themselves to win what’s changing into a form of technological arms race.
Moltbook became the talk of Silicon Valley final month, racking up thousands and thousands of registered bots inside days of its launch. Some in the business noticed it as a serious leap as a result of it demonstrated what can occur when AI brokers socialize with each other like people. Others stated the website is stuffed with sham brokers, AI slop and safety dangers and needs to be seen skeptically.
Meta’s acquisition comes weeks after OpenAI employed the founding father of the know-how behind Moltbook, an AI agent system referred to as OpenClaw. Moltbook’s staff will be part of Meta’s superintelligence labs. A Meta spokesperson stated Moltbook’s method “opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed the pleasure over Moltbook final month, suggesting OpenClaw, the open-source autonomous AI agent that powers the website’s bots, was the actual breakthrough. Altman wrote that he expects the know-how to change into “core” to OpenAI’s merchandise.
Meta acquired the buzzy AI agent startup Manus in December, following a string of high-profile hires supposed to construct out its superintelligence team. The firm additionally invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI final 12 months and employed its CEO.
But Meta, like a few of its Big Tech friends, is dealing with stress to show its AI investments will earn money, particularly as rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google churn out new and improved fashions for their chatbots. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated on a January earnings name the firm will launch its new AI fashions “over the coming months.”