In spring 2026, China saw a surge in the “AI Agent” craze, with large numbers of people beginning to use an open-source AI agent called OpenClaw. This AI agent, developed in November 2025 by a retired Austrian engineer, features a small red lobster as its trademark. As a result, Chinese users began referring to the installation, training, and fine-tuning process as “raising lobsters.” At the same time, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised OpenClaw at the 2026 GTC conference as the most popular open-source project in human history, and an important foundational platform for the era of AI agents. In a short time, “raising lobsters” became a nationwide movement in China.
OpenClaw as a milestone in AI innovation
The most important innovation of OpenClaw is its “executive capability.” Unlike chatbots that can only respond on screen and output text, OpenClaw has long-term memory and can directly operate computers. It can autonomously call different tools or software to complete tasks, functioning as a 24/7 “AI assistant.” This elevates AI applications into “behavioral agents,” taking another major step toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
Although the name “Claw” was chosen to distinguish it from Anthropic’s “Claude Code,” the term “claw” is widely understood in tech circles as referring to the AI’s “hand” that takes action in the digital world. OpenClaw includes a “heartbeat mechanism” for scheduled automatic tasks, such as checking emails and reading news. In addition, it can receive remote commands via messaging apps like Telegram and LINE. Due to its innovation, its developers were quickly recruited by OpenAI, and Nvidia rapidly released products compatible with the OpenClaw platform to accelerate global adoption.
Government and corporate push in China
Why did OpenClaw spread so quickly in China? In March 2026, China’s “Two Sessions” identified artificial intelligence as a core national strategy. Not only did the government work report propose a “deepening AI+ initiative,” but the “15th Five-Year Plan” also projected that the AI industry could exceed 10 trillion RMB by 2030. AI and robotics are seen as key future industries and central to China’s goal of “technological self-reliance and self-strengthening.”
Companies and local governments also rushed to join the “raising lobster” trend. Tech giants such as Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba Cloud, and Xiaomi launched related products, turning OpenClaw into a “one-click” consumer service, and organized limited “public benefit installation events,” leading to long queues. Local governments introduced incentive policies—for example, Shenzhen and Wuxi announced the “Ten Measures for Lobster” and “Twelve Measures for Raising Lobster,” respectively, offering subsidies of several million RMB per project to support the development of embodied AI and industrial AI agents.
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Public anxiety and technological diffusion
Most notable is the public response in China to “raising lobsters.” In addition to elderly people and primary school students hoping to use OpenClaw, many young and middle-aged people worry about being replaced by AI while also aspiring to the trend of “one-person companies.” A related industry quickly emerged. Young people installing OpenClaw for customers could earn up to 260,000 RMB within days. Services such as selling “AI skill packs” for OpenClaw also developed, forming an underground industrial chain.
Through social media dissemination, “raising lobsters” rapidly spread into everyday life. In March, China’s AI large-model usage grew for four consecutive weeks, with scale also surpassing the United States for four straight weeks, indicating that China’s AI application growth is leading globally and may be linked to the “raising lobster” boom.
High costs and cybersecurity issues trigger an ‘uninstall’ wave
However, within less than two weeks, services for “abandoning lobsters / uninstalling OpenClaw” became popular. The autonomy and efficiency of OpenClaw come with massive token consumption. Its background autonomous searching and reasoning led users to receive extremely large computing bills. Furthermore, because using OpenClaw requires granting full computer permissions, hacker groups emerged globally specializing in stealing computer API keys.
After China’s largest cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360 launched its AI assistant product “360 Security Lobster,” it was discovered that the company’s SSL private keys and credentials appeared in publicly downloadable installation packages. Once hacked and “poisoned,” OpenClaw systems could automatically delete files, leak confidential data, or even steal credit card information, causing severe losses for users.
As a result, a new “abandoning lobsters” trend began in China. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued cybersecurity warnings; the Ministry of State Security released a “Lobster Safety Farming Manual.” State-owned enterprises, government agencies, and large state-owned banks banned the use of OpenClaw on office networks. Many universities prohibited installation or external network access to the system on work computers. Civil society also saw another wave of paid “uninstall OpenClaw” services.
Although the “lobster” craze rose and fell quickly, AI agents are clearly the next core stage of AI development. The spring 2026 “raising vs. abandoning lobster” phenomenon reflects both high public anxiety and acceptance of AI in China, as well as the government’s insufficient understanding of advanced technologies and its urgency to win the US–China AI competition through data scale and widespread deployment.
(This article is reprinted from Shangbao with authorization by Vision Times.)