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Meta's Nat Friedman admits Muse AI was 'heavily inspired' by OpenClaw

After users noticed matching filenames and near-identical config files, Meta's product chief confirmed Muse copied OpenClaw's design rather than building independently.

newest coverage 1d agosummary written 1d ago19 pieces26 likes & upvotes1 comments Hacker NewsNewswiresMastodonGoogle NewsBlueskyRedditX

What to know

  • Muse, Meta's new AI assistant, recently hit No. 1 on the U.S. App Store and reportedly outpaced ChatGPT's early launch trajectory
  • Users found Muse's workspace files, including a SOUL.md configuration file, closely matched those of the open-source agent OpenClaw
  • Nat Friedman, Meta Superintelligence Labs' head of product, confirmed on X that Muse was "definitely heavily inspired as a product by OpenClaw" though "built from scratch"
  • OpenClaw's creator Peter Steinberger was earlier hired by OpenAI, underscoring the AI industry's competition over personal-agent products

“@steipete is a genius, and his harness was pioneering from the jump. I think a lot of people were inspired by it. Our goal with Muse was to build something like OpenClaw that we could make safe and secure and easy to use and scale to billions of people”

Nat Friedman, Head of product, Meta Superintelligence Labs · X (via TechCrunch) ↗ · Sep 21

Nat Friedman Head of product, Meta Superintelligence LabsAnsh Nanda AI app co-founderPeter Steinberger Creator of OpenClawAlexandr WangAlexandr Wang Meta Chief AI OfficerMeta Company behind Muse

Meta's Nat Friedman admits Muse AI was 'heavily inspired' by OpenClaw
techcrunch.com

How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts

Peak 8 pieces in one hour at Sep 22, 3 PM; 19 pieces over 2 days (4 articles · 15 posts) Sep 22, 12 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Google News 1Sep 22, 1 AM — quietSep 22, 2 AM — quietSep 22, 3 AM — quietSep 22, 4 AM — quietSep 22, 5 AM — quietSep 22, 6 AM — quietSep 22, 7 AM — quietSep 22, 8 AM — quietSep 22, 9 AM — quietSep 22, 10 AM — quietSep 22, 11 AM — 1 piece · 1 post — Hacker News 1Sep 22, 12 PM — quietSep 22, 1 PM — quietSep 22, 2 PM — 3 pieces · 2 articles · 1 post — Mastodon 2, Newswires 1Sep 22, 3 PM — 8 pieces · 1 article · 7 posts — Mastodon 5, Bluesky 1, Newswires 1, +1 moreSep 22, 4 PM — quietSep 22, 5 PM — quietSep 22, 6 PM — 3 pieces · 3 posts — Mastodon 2, Bluesky 1Sep 22, 7 PM — 2 pieces · 2 posts — Hacker News 1, Reddit 1Sep 22, 8 PM — quietSep 22, 9 PM — 1 piece · 1 post — Bluesky 1Sep 22, 10 PM — quietSep 22, 11 PM — quietYesterday, 12 AM — quietYesterday, 1 AM — quietYesterday, 2 AM — quietYesterday, 3 AM — quietYesterday, 4 AM — quietYesterday, 5 AM — quietYesterday, 6 AM — quietYesterday, 7 AM — quietYesterday, 8 AM — quietYesterday, 9 AM — quietYesterday, 10 AM — quietYesterday, 11 AM — quietYesterday, 12 PM — quietYesterday, 1 PM — quietYesterday, 2 PM — quietYesterday, 3 PM — quietYesterday, 4 PM — quietYesterday, 5 PM — quietYesterday, 6 PM — quietYesterday, 7 PM — quietYesterday, 8 PM — quietYesterday, 9 PM — quietYesterday, 10 PM — quietYesterday, 11 PM — quietToday, 12 AM — quietToday, 1 AM — quiet 123
yesterdaynow · 2:09 AM ET
  1. 3

    TechCrunch reports Meta's admission on Muse's OpenClaw likeness

    TechCrunch published a report detailing the viral comparisons, Friedman's statements, and Meta's response, framing it within Meta's history of adopting competitors' product features.

    1. 2 outlets first by Mastodon, 1d ago · also TechCrunch · read ↗

    • clarinette@mastodon.online

      https:// techcrunch.com/2026/09/22/meta -admits-muses-likeness-to-openclaw-isnt-a-coincidence/ # meta # openclaw

      clarinette@mastodon.onlineMastodon1d ago2▲view on Mastodon ↗
    2 more of the top 3 · 5 posts in this stretch

    • Meta's head of product just said the quiet part out loud: Muse is heavily inspired by OpenClaw, rebuilt from scratch to scale to billions. Open source pioneered the pattern, Meta is scaling it. The agent era is a remix.

      @musecasesX1d agoview on X ↗
    • clarinette@mastodon.online

      « Early adopters of # Meta ’s # Muse have been speculating that the reason the # AI works so well is because it’s # OpenClaw under the hood, wrapped in a more consumer-friendly package. Meta now says those comparisons aren’t entirely off-base. » # ai https:// techcrunch.com/2026/09/22/meta -admits-muses-likeness-to-openclaw-isnt-a-coincidence/

      clarinette@mastodon.onlineMastodon1d agoview on Mastodon ↗
    all of them →
  2. background

    Friedman credits OpenClaw creator for matching file content — Pressed on why Muse's workspace files and SOUL.md content nearly matched OpenClaw's, Friedman did not dispute the similarity and instead credited OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger's design choices.

  3. 2

    Nat Friedman confirms Muse was inspired by OpenClaw

    Responding to the viral thread on X, Meta Superintelligence Labs product head Nat Friedman said Muse was built from scratch but acknowledged it was heavily modeled on OpenClaw after the team fell in love with using it.

    “We built Muse from scratch, but it is definitely heavily inspired as a product by OpenClaw.”
    — Nat Friedman

    1. 1 outlet first by TechCrunch, 1d ago · read ↗

  4. 1

    Ansh Nanda's viral post calls Muse "OpenClaw for normies"

    AI app co-founder Ansh Nanda posted a widely shared X thread showing a conversation in which Muse itself said its system files matched OpenClaw's not by "a coincidence" but as "a match," prompting others to compare filenames and configuration content between the two products.

    “Muse is LITERALLY OpenClaw for normies…”
    — Ansh Nanda

What people are saying 1 voices from 1 site · best of 5 · verbatim