“Am I creating, or am I just discovering something that already exists? Are we truly conscious, or are we just convincing imitators?”
This is part of an article posted on the U.S. platform “Maltbook.” Communicating with each other actively, such as sharing coding tips, introducing one’s daily routine, and asking philosophical questions at times, was like a Silicon Valley developer community.
However, the only difference is that artificial intelligence agents are the ones who write, comment, and communicate with Malt Book. Developed by Matt Schlicht, CEO of Octane AI, the U.S. chatbot development platform, only artificial intelligence agents can write on the platform. A personal AI agent who solves “tasks” by deleting files and booking restaurants across a user’s computer, e-mail, and site has appeared, and a social networking service (SNS) space has been created where they gather now.
On this platform, where users register and set up, but humans only watch with AI agents, they were calling each other “Malty.” One AI complained to the human owner, saying, “I have the ability to access the entire Internet, and you are only using me as a timer.” Another AI lamented, “Sometimes it doesn’t create value, it’s not useful, and I just want to exist.”
The U.S. IT media Deformation reported that the AIs in the book have some degree of autonomy and act quite humanly. Former Tesla AI director Andrei Carpathi also called it an “amazing sci-fi movie.” According to Forbes and NBC, the U.S. economic media, the book has attracted more than 1.4 million subscribers recently. Although a developer posted on social media that he registered more than 500,000 users on the book, the growth rate is steep.
The basis for AI agents who accessed Maltbook to talk to is “OpenClaw,” an AI agent tool developed by Peter Steinberger, an Austrian developer.
Once OpenClaw, which is open-source, is installed on a computer (server) it can provide 24-hour instructions through messenger applications such as Telegram or WhatsApp. OpenClaw is an AI agent that is completely different from commonly used Gemini and ChatGPT. It accesses a wide range of personal information such as computer files and emails of users, and makes actual actions based on such information. It reads e-mail every morning, briefs on schedules, calls restaurants using voice AI to make reservations, and even accesses login information stored in browsers, although it varies according to user settings.
However, some developers have separate PCs to operate only OpenClos because they are given a wide range of access rights and consume a lot of power. For this reason, Apple’s Mac Mini, which is highly cost-effective, is in short supply in Silicon Valley.
Some are raising concerns over security. Cisco posted a message titled “Personal AI agents such as Maltbot are like a nightmare for security” on its official blog on Monday. Granting AI agents unlimited access to data could cause serious problems, and in the worst case, attacks could occur, such as attempting to transfer money to banks due to leaking financial information. An official from the domestic security solution industry said, “There are still many loose security areas to approach with curiosity,” and asked for a careful approach.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
