(March 13): Alibaba Group Holding Ltd launched a dedicated mobile app claiming to help users install and deploy OpenClaw within minutes, stepping up a battle between China’s tech leaders to profit off the viral agentic artificial intelligence (AI) assistant.
“JVS Claw” helps iOS and Android smartphone users without coding knowledge to instruct AI agents to perform simple real-world tasks, Alibaba said in a statement. Free for 14 days, it emerged after Baidu Inc released its own Android app this week for OpenClaw, which helps users shop online and book travel, among other things.
From Tencent Holdings Ltd to Minimax Group Inc, China’s biggest AI players are competing to offer OpenClaw services — feeding a nationwide frenzy dubbed “raising lobsters”. They are hoping to lower barriers to entry and tap a phenomenon named after OpenClaw’s animal mascot, in which students and retirees across the nation are experimenting with agentic AI.
The craze has fuelled a market rally over the past week as investors placed bets on the emergence of services that can propel AI into the mainstream. Wide adoption should drive revenue from the consumption of tokens — needed to drive AI usage — as well as further tech innovation.
The reaction from authorities has been mixed. At least four local municipalities have introduced supporting policies for deploying and developing OpenClaw, offering millions of yuan in subsidies.
But Beijing has also moved to restrict state-run enterprises and government agencies from freely running OpenClaw AI apps on office computers, acting swiftly to defuse potential security risks.
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For agentic AI like OpenClaw to be really useful, it needs wide access to users’ data and their various apps. That makes them juicy cyberattack avenues or targets.
Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee
