I Went to ClawCon, Where AI Fans Ate Lobster and Debated

I arrived at Ideally suited Glass Studios at 6 p.m. on the dot, proper when the doorways opened. The road had already grown two blocks lengthy.

Navigating to the again of the road, I noticed some tell-tale indicators of techies. The person in entrance of me wore an Anthropic hat. The person behind me had no bag; he was simply holding his laptop computer.

Strolling down the road, a heckler chanted: “You guys are ruining society! Do not use AI.”

Whereas my ticket was scanned on the door, I watched a bouncer escort out three attendees who he stated had been solely on the waitlist. Tickets had been free, however house was restricted.

Strolling inside, the very first thing I noticed was the density of the gang. It was packed, loud, and most did not take off their cumbersome backpacks or coats, despite the fact that there was a coat examine.

I additionally noticed branding, and many it. The occasion had a slew of sponsors with promoting tables, posters, and stickers. Most of the stay demos later within the night time had been additionally carried out by sponsors.

On the middle of ClawCon was a towering desk of lobster tail. Employees helped serve them up on small plates. Strolling round, I noticed a number of founders pitching merchandise between bites of the tail, fishing it out of its shell.

It was becoming: OpenClaw’s mascot is a lobster.

Each attendee bought one drink ticket. Comparatively few of the attendees I noticed were drinking, which means the bar was quiet. I noticed just a few engineers order Modelos and glasses of Prosecco.

The occasion’s vitality was buoyant. Strolling round, individuals appeared actually excited to be there amongst like-minded AI-pilled of us.

Wearables had been frequent. I noticed at the least two attendees carrying Meta AI glasses with the flashing recording gentle. There have been additionally a handful of influencers filming themselves and others.

In New York, individuals typically lead with their work. Right here was no exception: I heard numerous engineers debating which tech firms had been the very best (and worst) to work for.

I discovered a seat and listened in on some conversations. One Amazon engineer advised an Uber engineer that he was uncertain of OpenClaw, however got here as a result of he was open-minded and beloved AI.

Host Michael Galpert bought onstage to introduce the night. He defined the meetups’ quick historical past, courting again to the primary ClawCon in San Francisco a month in the past. Notable attendees to that occasion included Marissa Mayer, Ashton Kutcher, and OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, he stated.

I hoped that Steinberger would present up in New York, however I had no luck. (He is seemingly busier than ever, having not too long ago joined OpenAI.)

“Individuals on this room in all probability aren’t builders; their brokers are builders,” Galpert stated.

Galpert launched Vincent Koc, one in every of OpenClaw’s maintainers. The group shipped 194 options and fixes on Tuesday, Koc stated.

Some of us chuckled when Koc referenced “normies” embracing OpenClaw, together with Child Keem and Andrew Tate (each of whom have posted about it on X).

This was when the room’s noise started to construct as nicely. Those that could not get a seat had been chatting, making it laborious to listen to.

Then got here a sequence of demos. Some had been actually fascinating, like a researcher who used OpenClaw to handle his colony of mice. One other presenter stated he used OpenClaw for paper trading with the objective of finally incomes passive revenue.

A couple of had technical difficulties, making them much less demos and extra shows of screenshots. Many additionally felt like advertisements, hawking their product and promising free tokens.

In the meantime, the room was getting louder and louder. Galpert tried to get of us to calm down, however stated that there have been no audio system for these behind the room, so he could not blame them.

Reaching the tip of the demos, I regarded round.

Most of the seats had been empty. These within the rows forward and behind me had stopped listening and began speaking amongst themselves.

I am undecided of us had been leaving, per se, a lot as becoming a member of the gang. The occasion was for networking and assembly different AI devotees; sooner or later, sitting silently and watching demos misplaced its luster.

The ultimate demo was my favourite.

It was extra of a proof, because the artist Fiona Aboud advised us about her parenting agent. Aboud is a mom to 19-year-old twins. Her OpenClaw is a “handholder” for folks, permitting them to ask questions, observe feedings, and make charts.

With that, the demos had been over. I walked round a bit, snapped just a few pictures, and left.

On the prepare dwelling, I noticed individuals on X evaluating it to the early days of crypto. That appeared correct, I assumed: all the joy and extra, wrapped up in a single deliciously nerdy convention.