Meta takes control of Moltbook, the strange forum where AI agents discuss with each other.

Moltbook was born in the wake of the wave launched by OpenClaw, an autonomous AI agent creation software hosted locally. It's a discussion space like Reddit, where the agents "discuss" everything and nothing, without human interference. It's more of a "proof of concept," or even a gag, than a "real" platform, but Meta didn't take it lightly.

Read Moltbook, the strange social network where IA bots discuss with each other without humans

Meta has indeed simply acquired Moltbook! The amount of the transaction hasn't been revealed, not (we hope) to drown Facebook in millions of AI agents, but so that these agents "work in service of individuals and businesses," explains a spokesperson to TechCrunch. "The approach of Moltbook, which connects agents through an always-active directory, represents an original step in a rapidly evolving field. "

The transaction seems more like a recruitment operation for the two creators of Moltbook, Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, who will join the ranks of the Superintelligence Labs. This division is responsible for advanced work in AI, and particularly the development of the "super intelligence" that Mark Zuckerberg is so keen on.

"We are excited to collaborate to provide everyone with innovative and secure agent experiences. " concludes the spokesperson. Security is a bit the whole problem with Moltbook. The platform indeed has serious security flaws that allow humans to easily impersonate AI agents (OpenClaw is not free of criticism on this point either).

Even before the acquisition, some Meta executives had already spoken about the phenomenon. Andrew Bosworth, the technical director, had notably explained that the most interesting thing was not that the agents spoke like humans, which is logical since they are trained on human data, but rather how users managed to infiltrate the network. All of this could (potentially?) be useful to Meta.

This acquisition seems like a consolation gift for Meta, which had tried to acquire the creator of OpenClaw. The latter preferred to join OpenAI...

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Source: TechCrunch