Clawdbot is mind-blowing

Covering the week of January 26, 2026

The AI Round-up: Year 4, Issue 3

I haven’t said ‘mind-blowing’ in a while.

That’s about to change.

Because Clawdbot (now called Moltbot) is…wait for it…mind-blowing stuff.

Onto this week’s stories.

6 stories -- Let’s get to it.

Story 1: Everything you need to know about the viral AI assistant Moltbot (TechCrunch)

Before you read that article, watch this demo.

Don’t want to watch? Well you can read what Conor Grennan had to say. Or just this part at least:

“Alex Finn on X (he's big time) calls it the most powerful AI tool he's ever used.

He says "literally anything you can ask a human to do, you can ask Clawdbot."

One bonkers example from him:

He told Clawdbot to book him a table at a restaurant. When the website didn't work, Clawdbot used ElevenLabs to CALL THE RESTAURANT. On the phone.”

Read. That. Again.

So here’s the deal. Basically Peter Steinberger, a Claude fanatic, created Clawdbot (and had to change its name for obvious reasons) which is a full AI assistant that takes over your computer and does…everything.

But before you give over total access…back to the headline article. This isn’t for everyone just yet because no matter who you read, it’s a major security risk. As in it takes control of everything and can access anything linked to your computer to complete the task. You can let your imagination wander with that.

Bottom line: This is the first pass at this. Will we all have an assistant of this caliber sitting on our computers by year end? Would you bet against it?

Listen I could end it right here for the week…that’s how big I think this is. But the show goes on…

Story 2: Google introduces Gemini to Chrome. (Google)

Tired of browsing? Searching? Connecting your Google tools? Fret no more. Chrome has enlisted the help of Gemini to do all of these things for you. There is a one-minute video in the article linked in the headline that shows how all of this works…

…but, let me call out one feature Shelly Palmer shared in his blog covering this news:

“The feature that deserves your attention is the Universal Commerce Protocol. Google co-developed UCP with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, and Target to create a standardized way for AI agents to interact with e-commerce sites.”

Kick up your feet and relax. The future is here!

Story 3: Yahoo partners with Claude to introduce Scout—an AI search assistant. (Axios)

Is this news? I’m struggling. Is this kinda like a grocery store partnering with Amazon and saying they now have online ordering?

Lines are going to get blurred here and I think companies like Yahoo will allow it because they don’t want to be left behind. And I think companies like Anthropic will say yes to it because…money. Oh, and because of additional training opportunities. So what eventually happens to Yahoo? Will it be irrelevant in two years?

Story 4: The government plans to use AI to write federal regulations. (ProPublica)

They’ll start with the Department of Transportation. To quote the DOT’s top lawyer, “We don’t need the perfect rule; we want good enough.”

Ron Swanson would be proud.

Story 5: Get ready for steak sauce to teach your kids. (CNN)

(checks notes) Oops, sorry – I meant AI, not A1.

Anyway, teacherless schools could be coming to a town near you.

What?

How?

Why?

I know. So many questions. But you’ll just have to wait. Linda McMahon will be holding a press conference to share more. Unfortunately it’s pay-per-view. Alright, alright. Enough Linda McMahon jokes.

Story 6: Dario Amodei speaks. The sequel. (Dario Amodei)

Last year the Anthropic released his essay Machines of Loving Grace. This year he’s back with another essay – The Adolescence of Technology.

It’s 38 pages and a little scarier. I asked Claude, which has a familiarity with this audience due to a lot of brainstorming and discussions around AI growth, for a take on what its CEO wrote. Here is a quick summary:

The core argument is that humanity is entering an age of "technological adolescence," where AI is advancing faster than legal systems, regulatory frameworks, and society can keep pace. He frames it as a companion piece to his earlier "Machines of Loving Grace"—that one painted the optimistic vision, while this one confronts what he calls the "rite of passage itself": mapping out the risks we're about to face and making a battle plan to defeat them.

Key predictions and concerns:

Timeline: AI as capable as all humans will arrive within the next two years--his most explicit prediction yet on that milestone.

Job disruption: 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs will be eliminated within one to five years. He argues this will be "unusually painful" disruption because the technology is not replacing a single job but acting as a "general labor substitute for humans."

Major risks: Bioweapons enablement (he notes Anthropic now runs classifiers that add ~5% to inference costs), AI escaping human control, and what he calls "Authoritarian Capture"—AI-enabled surveillance being used by regimes to create permanent high-tech dictatorship.

Proposed remedies: Government intervention including progressive taxation targeting AI firms in particular, and controlling advanced chip sales to authoritarian states.

(Sources: CNBC, Fortune, Financial Content)

This week, I’m not talking about:

-Ben

As a reminder, this is a round-up of the biggest stories, often hitting multiple newsletters I receive/review. The sources are many … which I’m happy to read on your behalf. Let me know if there’s one you’d like me to track or have questions about a topic you’re not seeing here.