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Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by vrganj on Saturday May 16, 2026 @09:53AM (#48160293)
But.... why? Like I read his thing on how he spends the tokens [0] and it sounds like satire.

He has agents write shitty code for features other agents think other people want, then has it reviewed by other agents in hopes of catching bugs that the first agent put there, then has some more agents try to find security bugs in the now double-agented code to make it triple-agented and at the end of the day, he spent a shitton of tokens, probably emitted enough carbon to heat our planet by another degree, and has a feature nobody really asked for that might or might not work.

He then has the sense of humor to call this grotesque process "incredibly lean".

What's the point in all of this? What problems is this solving? Who's benefiting?

[0] https://xcancel.com/steipete/status/2055405041843052792

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by browningstreet on Saturday May 16, 2026 @11:08AM (#48160885)
I don’t use openclaw myself anymore, but this agonizing is thin and unbearable. He did a thing. People use the thing. He got paid for the thing. He iterates the thing. What’s hard to understand about this?

The morality issues about consumption climate impacts are not his alone, and are not unique by itself to his endeavor. Every company with an enterprise LLM agreement has a share, for instance.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by hansmayer on Saturday May 16, 2026 @06:52PM (#48164477)
> I don’t use openclaw myself anymore

Firstly, who TF would use that crap in the first place at all? Yeah, he did some crap he got paid for. So did the people who created the addictive algorithms for social and media or creators of the brainrot videos that infest kids' minds. Should we applaud them too?

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by browningstreet on Saturday May 16, 2026 @07:20PM (#48164652)
You can hate it, but pretending it has no value isn’t a meaningful counter, esp given its user base. Gary Tan built GBrain on it. Poor logical fallacy-ing on your part.
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by iejwjw on Saturday May 16, 2026 @07:33PM (#48164725)
And?

The reality is if the thing can’t survive financially without being subsidised in the long run - it deserves to die.

There is no trend showing that these expensive things exist in the long run in this manner. - it’s pure speculation and for many: hopes and dreams.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by browningstreet on Saturday May 16, 2026 @08:38PM (#48165089)
RIP Linux kernel then

Who knew it was that simple..?

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by customguy on Sunday May 17, 2026 @12:13AM (#48165989)
> What problems is this solving?

It's a very simple question, the subthread you created based on reducing everything to "he did a thing" and calling the comment you didn't interact with at all "agonizing".

Why not rather leave it at "they wrote a comment"? What is so hard to understand about that, to use your words?

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by hansmayer on Sunday May 17, 2026 @06:32AM (#48167672)
What increase in ARR did he create? Let's stop bullshitting and get down to numbers.
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by Alex_L_Wood on Monday May 18, 2026 @01:30AM (#48175884)
Gary Tan building something AI-related on top of your work is an anti-flex.
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by VerTiGo_Etrex on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:39AM (#48160658)
But this is okay?

“He has /people/ write shitty code for features other /people/ think other people want, then has it reviewed by other /people/ in hopes of catching bugs that the first /people/ put there, then has some more /people/ try to find security bugs in the now /double-peopled/ code to make it /triple-peopled/ and at the end of the day, he spent a shitton of /money, the people/ probably emitted enough carbon to heat our planet by another degree, and has a feature nobody really asked for that might or might not work.”

Honestly sounds like a normal tech company to me. Just with much dumber “people” who are getting exponentially smarter, eventually never die, eventually never forget.

You have to skate to where the puck is going, not where it is.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by wasJka on Saturday May 16, 2026 @11:00AM (#48160833)
Congratulations! You are the winner of the 2026 "humans do it, too" award for the most primitive substitution of an original argument.
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by bigstrat2003 on Saturday May 16, 2026 @04:17PM (#48163421)
> Just with much dumber “people” who are getting exponentially smarter

They haven't gotten any smarter yet, let alone exponentially smarter. They are still the same dumb parrots that they were in the beginning.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by wolvoleo on Saturday May 16, 2026 @06:40PM (#48164394)
With the rate our planet is heating up, there may be nobody left to skate after the puck.
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by hansmayer on Saturday May 16, 2026 @06:53PM (#48164483)
Do not equate people with bullshit LLMs, please.
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by simianwords on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:22AM (#48160522)
>He then has the sense of humor to call this grotesque process "incredibly lean".

> What's the point in all of this? What problems is this solving? Who's benefiting?

The economy doesn't work like how you think it does. Its not central planning. All the usages aren't detailed in a specification, submitted for approval to 100 agencies and then allowed to be used.

It shows lack of intellectual curiosity to not engage deeply with obviously profound technology and what the implications are. I find this exercise helpful.

Peter is predicting how LLMs will be used in the future when the prices go down. And they will definitely go down. I think his predictions are correct and we will definitely have something similar to OpenClaw.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by vrganj on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:52AM (#48160764)
> The economy doesn't work like how you think it does. Its not central planning.

I'm aware. That is in fact my central critique. The way it works is incredibly wasteful of our limited resources, as illustrated by this guy burning through fuel during a time of crisis for no perceptible gain.

> It shows lack of intellectual curiosity to not engage deeply with obviously profound technology and what the implications are.

The "obviously profound" is an assertion without proof.

The rest I agree with, we should engage with the implications of burning through energy to build features that bots think humans want, but nobody actually asked for, all while climate scientists are telling us we're heading for the apocalypse. It is intellectually incurious to just ignore the questions of why and at what cost, maybe even dangerously so.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by Our_Benefactors on Saturday May 16, 2026 @07:19PM (#48164645)
> The way it works is incredibly wasteful of our limited resources

You should try playing the game “workers and resources”; it’s a simcity like game, but based in the Soviet system of central planning, not capitalism. It will make you loathe the inefficiencies in central planning.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by eieiie on Saturday May 16, 2026 @07:54PM (#48164860)
Market economies do not equal capitalism btw.

The appropriate comparison is command vs market. Capitalism is efficient in utilising the characteristics of humans to bring about expansion of markets.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by w11qsh on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:34AM (#48160618)
Mario Zechner wrote the main part of this IP laundering application.

I didn't know that studying photocopiers is suddenly linked to "intellectual curiosity". Being a photocopier maintenance guy was always considered boring.

What you put on top of the machine was intellectually interesting.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by c-hendricks on Saturday May 16, 2026 @07:07PM (#48164580)
> what the implications are

like one bot finding similar issues and PRs, the another bot closing issues for "lack of activity", meanwhile people are reacting and pleading to speak to a real human?

Congrats builders of the future, you've turned software development into automated voice systems.

[dead]
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by simianwords on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:23AM (#48160530)
I don't understand how he is a scam artist. Lots of people are using the things he built. TBH this kind of rhetoric is a bit degrading experience on this website
Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by JKCalhoun on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:51AM (#48160759)
Sure, without context or explanation it's just character assassination.

Having said that, we ought just downvote and move on.

Re:OpenClaw Creator Spent $1.3M on OpenAI Tokens in 30 Days by shimman on Saturday May 16, 2026 @10:11AM (#48160436)
If history is anything to go by, he'll likely lead YC within the decade.