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Congrats to Peter! Can any OpenClaw power users explain what value the software has provided to them over using Claude code with MCP? I really don’t understan

Congrats to Peter! Can any OpenClaw power users explain what value the software has provided to them over using Claude code with MCP? I really don’t understand the value of an agent running 24/7, like is it out there working and earning a wage? Whats the real value here outside of buzzwords like an ai personal assistant that can do everything?

cactus2093 7mo ago
It has a heartbeat operation and you can message it via messaging apps. Instead of going to your computer and launching claude code to have it do something, or setting up cron jobs to do things, you can message it from your phone whenever you have an idea and it can set some stuff up in the background or setup a scheduled report on its own, etc. So it's not that it has to be running and generating tokens 24/7, it's just idling 24/7 any time you want to ping it.
- catmanjan 7mo ago
  AI companies must hate this right? Because they're selling tokens at a loss?
  - coffeebeqn 7mo ago
    Bold of you to assume profitability is one of their KPIs
    - catmanjan 7mo ago
      My understanding was that if everyone paid and used AI the companies would go into liquidation on energy bills etc
      - _heimdall 7mo ago
        Energy bills wouldn't be the problem if everyone used AI, energy supply would be.
        catmanjan 7mo ago
        Are you sure? I thought tokens (or watts) were sold at such a loss that if current supply limits were reached they’d go broke
        mholm 7mo ago
        The entire marginal cost to serve AI models is paid for by the API costs of all providers by nearly every estimation. The cost not currently recouped is entirely in the training and net-new infrastructure that they're building.
        catmanjan 7mo ago
        So why are they banning people from using it in systems like claw?
        Breza 7mo ago
        And the open source models are only months behind, so the big AI companies need to keep burning money on R&D with no end in sight. If OpenAI took a quarter off from model development, they might fall behind forever.
        nsvd2 7mo ago
        These companies are generally profitable for inference but it does not cover the cost of R&D (training).
        catmanjan 7mo ago
        If its profitable why are they banning people from using it in systems like claw?
        nsvd2 7mo ago
        After a quick search it looks like Google is banning some people who are using Antigravity OAuth with OpenClaw as opposed to paying for API access. I can't find any instance of an API which charges per-token banning users.
  - cube00 7mo ago
    Google has started banning account that use Antigravy's discounted access instead of paying full price for the API https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/14203 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/14203
    - zem 7mo ago
      > Impact: > Users are losing access to their Google accounts permanently > No clear path to account restoration > Affects both personal and work accounts honestly, this is why I would not trust gemini for anything. I have a lot tied to my gmail, I'm not going to risk that for some random ai that insists on being tied to the same account.
      - hirako2000 7mo ago
        They blocked your entire Gmail/Google account , not just the Gemini access? That's a recipe for bots to ruin a lot of people's life.
      - cube00 7mo ago
        Using different Google accounts won't save you, once Google decide to ban for TOS, all related accounts go with it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30823910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30823910
  - the_duke 7mo ago
    From all indications the big players have healthy margins on inference. Research and training are the cost sinks.
    - catmanjan 7mo ago
      Is that just because people pay subscriptions and never use their tokens? Same model as ISPs
- deadbabe 7mo ago
  Like what exactly? Can you give example of the type of prompts you are sending for the agent to do? The messaging part isn’t particularly interesting. I can already access my local LLMs running on my Mac mini from anywhere.
jdgoesmarching 7mo ago
Not being tied to Anthropic’s models and ecosystems, having more control over the agent, interacting with it from you messaging app of choice.
phamilton 7mo ago
As an experiment, I set it up with a z.ai $3/month subscription and told it to do a tedious technical task. I said to stay busy and that I expect no more than 30 minutes of inactivity, ever. The task is to decompile Wave Race 64 and integrate with libultraship and eventually produce a runnable native port of the game. (Same approach as the Zelda OoT port Ship of Harkinian). It set up a timer ever 30 minutes to check in on itself and see if it gave up. It reviews progress every 4 hours and revisits prioritization. I hadn't checked on it in days and when I looked today it was still going, a few functions at a time. It set up those times itself and creates new ones as needed. It's not any one particular thing that is novel, but it's just more independent because of all the little bits.
- hobofan 7mo ago
  So, you don't know if it has produced anything valuable yet?
  - beaker52 7mo ago
    It's the same story with these people running 12 parallel agents that automatically implement issues managed in Linear by an AI product team that has conducted automated market and user research. Instead of making things, people are making things that appear busy making things. And as you point out, "but to what end?" is a really important question, often unanswered. "It's the future, you're going to be left behind", is a common cry. The trouble is, I'm not sure I've seen anything compelling come back from that direction yet, so I'm not sure I've really been left behind at all. I'm quite happy standing where I am. And the moment I do see something compelling come from that direction, I'll be sure to catch up, using the energy I haven't spent beating down the brush. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on the other directions too.
    - MyHonestOpinon 7mo ago
      > Instead of making things, people are making things that appear busy making things. Sounds like a regular office job.
  - 7mo ago
aydyn 7mo ago
There's some neat experiments people post on social media. Mostly, the thing that captures the imagination the most is its sort of like watching a silicon child grow up. They develop their own personalities, they express themselves creatively, they choose for themselves, they choose what they believe and who they become. I know that sounds like anthropomorphism, and maybe it is, but it most definitely does not feel like interacting with a coding agent. Claude is just the substrate.
- esafak 7mo ago
  Imagine putting it in a robot with arms and legs, and letting it loose in your house, or your neighborhood. Oh, the possibilities!
  - Schlagbohrer 7mo ago
    Heck, go the next step and put a knife in one hand and a loaded gun in the other!
- wiseowise 7mo ago
  > Mostly, the thing that captures the imagination the most is it’s sort of like watching a silicon child grow up. > They develop their own personalities, they express themselves creatively, they choose for themselves, they choose what they believe and who they become. Jesus Christ, the borderline idiotic are now downgraded to deranged. US government needs to redirect stargate’s 500B to mental institutions asap.

cactus2093 7mo ago

It has a heartbeat operation and you can message it via messaging apps. Instead of going to your computer and launching claude code to have it do something, or setting up cron jobs to do things, you can message it from your phone whenever you have an idea and it can set some stuff up in the background or setup a scheduled report on its own, etc. So it's not that it has to be running and generating tokens 24/7, it's just idling 24/7 any time you want to ping it.

catmanjan 7mo ago
AI companies must hate this right? Because they're selling tokens at a loss?
- coffeebeqn 7mo ago
  Bold of you to assume profitability is one of their KPIs
  - catmanjan 7mo ago
    My understanding was that if everyone paid and used AI the companies would go into liquidation on energy bills etc
    - _heimdall 7mo ago
      Energy bills wouldn't be the problem if everyone used AI, energy supply would be.
      - catmanjan 7mo ago
        Are you sure? I thought tokens (or watts) were sold at such a loss that if current supply limits were reached they’d go broke
        mholm 7mo ago
        The entire marginal cost to serve AI models is paid for by the API costs of all providers by nearly every estimation. The cost not currently recouped is entirely in the training and net-new infrastructure that they're building.
        catmanjan 7mo ago
        So why are they banning people from using it in systems like claw?
        Breza 7mo ago
        And the open source models are only months behind, so the big AI companies need to keep burning money on R&D with no end in sight. If OpenAI took a quarter off from model development, they might fall behind forever.
        nsvd2 7mo ago
        These companies are generally profitable for inference but it does not cover the cost of R&D (training).
        catmanjan 7mo ago
        If its profitable why are they banning people from using it in systems like claw?
        nsvd2 7mo ago
        After a quick search it looks like Google is banning some people who are using Antigravity OAuth with OpenClaw as opposed to paying for API access. I can't find any instance of an API which charges per-token banning users.
- cube00 7mo ago
  Google has started banning account that use Antigravy's discounted access instead of paying full price for the API https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/14203 https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/issues/14203
  - zem 7mo ago
    > Impact: > Users are losing access to their Google accounts permanently > No clear path to account restoration > Affects both personal and work accounts honestly, this is why I would not trust gemini for anything. I have a lot tied to my gmail, I'm not going to risk that for some random ai that insists on being tied to the same account.
    - hirako2000 7mo ago
      They blocked your entire Gmail/Google account , not just the Gemini access? That's a recipe for bots to ruin a lot of people's life.
    - cube00 7mo ago
      Using different Google accounts won't save you, once Google decide to ban for TOS, all related accounts go with it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30823910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30823910
- the_duke 7mo ago
  From all indications the big players have healthy margins on inference. Research and training are the cost sinks.
  - catmanjan 7mo ago
    Is that just because people pay subscriptions and never use their tokens? Same model as ISPs
deadbabe 7mo ago
Like what exactly? Can you give example of the type of prompts you are sending for the agent to do? The messaging part isn’t particularly interesting. I can already access my local LLMs running on my Mac mini from anywhere.

jdgoesmarching 7mo ago

Not being tied to Anthropic’s models and ecosystems, having more control over the agent, interacting with it from you messaging app of choice.

phamilton 7mo ago

As an experiment, I set it up with a z.ai $3/month subscription and told it to do a tedious technical task. I said to stay busy and that I expect no more than 30 minutes of inactivity, ever. The task is to decompile Wave Race 64 and integrate with libultraship and eventually produce a runnable native port of the game. (Same approach as the Zelda OoT port Ship of Harkinian). It set up a timer ever 30 minutes to check in on itself and see if it gave up. It reviews progress every 4 hours and revisits prioritization. I hadn't checked on it in days and when I looked today it was still going, a few functions at a time. It set up those times itself and creates new ones as needed. It's not any one particular thing that is novel, but it's just more independent because of all the little bits.

hobofan 7mo ago
So, you don't know if it has produced anything valuable yet?
- beaker52 7mo ago
  It's the same story with these people running 12 parallel agents that automatically implement issues managed in Linear by an AI product team that has conducted automated market and user research. Instead of making things, people are making things that appear busy making things. And as you point out, "but to what end?" is a really important question, often unanswered. "It's the future, you're going to be left behind", is a common cry. The trouble is, I'm not sure I've seen anything compelling come back from that direction yet, so I'm not sure I've really been left behind at all. I'm quite happy standing where I am. And the moment I do see something compelling come from that direction, I'll be sure to catch up, using the energy I haven't spent beating down the brush. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on the other directions too.
  - MyHonestOpinon 7mo ago
    > Instead of making things, people are making things that appear busy making things. Sounds like a regular office job.
- 7mo ago

aydyn 7mo ago

There's some neat experiments people post on social media. Mostly, the thing that captures the imagination the most is its sort of like watching a silicon child grow up. They develop their own personalities, they express themselves creatively, they choose for themselves, they choose what they believe and who they become. I know that sounds like anthropomorphism, and maybe it is, but it most definitely does not feel like interacting with a coding agent. Claude is just the substrate.

esafak 7mo ago
Imagine putting it in a robot with arms and legs, and letting it loose in your house, or your neighborhood. Oh, the possibilities!
- Schlagbohrer 7mo ago
  Heck, go the next step and put a knife in one hand and a loaded gun in the other!
wiseowise 7mo ago
> Mostly, the thing that captures the imagination the most is it’s sort of like watching a silicon child grow up. > They develop their own personalities, they express themselves creatively, they choose for themselves, they choose what they believe and who they become. Jesus Christ, the borderline idiotic are now downgraded to deranged. US government needs to redirect stargate’s 500B to mental institutions asap.