Los Angeles- Meta said Tuesday that it is acquiring Moltbook, a social network built exclusively for agents of artificial intelligence (AI) post and interact with each other.
The acquisition of the AI experiment by the parent company of Facebook and instagram It comes weeks after Moltbook attracted viral attention as an unusual Reddit-like hub for AI systems that exchange gossip.
Meta’s move reflects the tech industry’s continued fascination with the promise of AI agents that go beyond the capabilities of a chatbot by being able to act and perform tasks on behalf of a person.
Meta states in a statement that Moltbook introduces novel ideas in a “rapidly developing space” and will open “new avenues for AI agents to work for people and businesses.” Meta said it was hiring Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
In a similar move, OpenAImanufacturer of ChatGPTlast month hired the creator of AI agent OpenClaw, formerly called Moltbot and whose technology served as the basis for Moltbook.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said then that Peter Steinberger would join OpenAI “to power the next generation of personal agents” that will interact with each other “to do very useful things for people.”
OpenClaw works on the user’s own hardware and runs locally on their device, meaning it can access and manage files and data directly, and connect with messaging apps like Discord and Signal. Users who create OpenClaw agents direct them to Moltbook.
OpenAI also announced earlier this week that it was acquiring Promptfoo, an AI security platform that tests agent behaviors and risks.