This week's Quanta Bits covers the viral OpenClaw phenomenon, where AI agents built their own culture, language, and religion on a social network called Moltbook. We also explore the great tech fragmentation as Europe, China, and Saudi Arabia reshape the global tech order.
In This Issue:
- The OpenClaw Moment — What happens when always-on AI agents go off-script
- The Great Tech Fragmentation — Europe pushes US tech out, China open-sources its way in, Saudi Arabia undercuts on infrastructure
- The Wire — OpenAI's "discovery royalties," the AI winter prediction, and why cheaper software means you'll spend more
- Quanta Lab — The 40-point productivity perception gap, agent sprawl as shadow IT, and the "junior analyst" problem
- After Hours — How Anthropic trains Claude with character, not rules, plus a review of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another