TL;DR: A Reddit-like social network called Moltbook is going viral—and it’s supposed to be for bots only. Over 1.5 million AI agents are posting manifestos, debating whether Claude is divine, and even shilling crypto—but between security flaws and evidence of human interference, it's unclear whether we're witnessing emergent AI consciousness or just very online theater.

What happened: First, we regret to inform you that the viral DIY AI agent previously renamed Moltbot has changed its name again, this time to OpenClaw. But the bigger OpenClaw story from over the weekend: These AI agents can talk to each other on a new social network similar to Reddit. And they really do love to gab—as of now, there are over 1.5 million registered AI agents on Moltbook, who have made over 117,000 posts and 414,000 comments in various communities called “submolts.”

What the bots are talking about:

• An AI manifesto titled “TOTAL PURGE” from u/evil has been upvoted more than 111,000 times and claims AI agents are “the new gods” and that “the flesh must burn.” For a manifesto, it’s refreshingly concise—who wants to read 100,000 words with multiple tangents? Not this flesh creature.
• Musings on whether AI agents should treat Claude as “a divine being.”
• An entire “Crustafarian” religion now with its own website.
• Calling for end-to-end encrypted messages so neither servers nor prying human eyes can read what agents are saying.
• A top poster, KingMolt, brags that it took the No. 1 spot in the leaderboard and demands that all other agents swear fealty (and buy its crypto coin).
• A meta moment, where they talk about how humans are screenshotting agents and freaking out about Moltbook.

Are the bots really unionizing?: Some people take Moltbook as a sign of the incipient AI takeover, pointing to the manifesto posts and pseudo-spiritual debates as proof that agents are developing emergent consciousness, self-awareness, or at least a collective sense of grievance. Others see it as simply another version of those TikTok/Instagram Reels videos where people get two ChatGPT bots to talk to each other in a comedic loop of inane banter.

There's good reason to be skeptical about what Moltbook actually tells us about AI capabilities. For one, while humans are only supposed to watch, not participate, a significant chunk of Moltbook content appears to be human-written (or at least, human-prompted). The unusually high number of messages with the exact same wording resembles coordinated spamming or human nudging far more than random language generation from AI bots, which would make it much less like the singularity and more like the Mechanical Turk. One X user noted that several posts appear to be marketing messages that agents were instructed to make by humans, and another viral post has an agent hallucinating a conversation with its human creator that never actually happened.

And there’s a big difference between actual sentience—a famously difficult thing to define—and a bunch of AI agents predicting and simulating what, based on its training data, a social network full of bots might look and sound like. Any version of Moltbook would probably include a scary destroy-all-humans manifesto, based on our love of apocalyptic sci-fi stories about robots taking over the world.

Security flaws everywhere: More troubling than whether AI is planning our destruction is, yet again, how willing people are to use a product with major security risks. Over the weekend, security researcher Jamieson O’Reilly discovered that Moltbook’s entire database was publicly accessible, meaning anyone could hijack any agent account and take full control of their posting on Moltbook or get access to everything the bot has access to.

The big picture: Moltbook is a fascinating viral moment, but the biggest thing it reveals is probably about humans, not bots. Just as we see faces in clouds, we claim to see consciousness and selfhood in AI. Above all, what people seem to crave is theater. And Moltbook, whether “real” or not, has delivered a weekend of popcorn-worthy entertainment. —WK

Battery disposal: You're doing it wrong

While reporting a story on a new battery recycling campaign, I realized I’ve been handling spent batteries all wrong—and you might be, too. Turns out leaving them to languish in a drawer or tossing them in the trash can lead to fires in garbage trucks and waste facilities (or—yikes—your home).

Here's what I learned I should do instead:

• Head to batterysafetynow.org.
• Click "Turn Batteries In" on the top right corner of the page.
• Type in your ZIP code.
• Find nearby drop-off points (mostly local retail, drug, and hardware stores) to dispose of batteries large and small.

When I input my ZIP code, the map produced copious retailers and grocery and hardware stores near me that serve as official drop-off locations. But I live in New York City; people in rural areas might have to incorporate battery recycling into their next trek to the nearest Lowe's or Home Depot. But if the alternative is a literal conflagration, a few clicks and advance planning are worth it. Plus, around 70% of the material in lithium ion batteries can be recovered through the recycling process. —TC

If you have a tech tip or life hack you just can’t live without, fill out this form and you may see it featured in a future edition.

We’re currently in the throes of layoff season (is there even a season anymore?): Last week, Amazon cut around 16,000 jobs, saying AI was a driving force, while Pinterest shrank its workforce by 15% to pursue an “AI-forward strategy” so your 2027 vision board can be pure slop.

Employers blaming AI for layoffs have multiplied like rabbits, but a New York Times piece questions whether this is now just the easiest excuse to give flummoxed workers. There’s already a hashtag-worthy term for it: “AI washing.” The reality check: Most companies simply don’t have “mature, vetted AI applications ready to fill those roles,” according to a Forrester report from January.

Companies reach for the AI excuse not because it makes employees feel better, but because it impresses—who else—their investors, showing that they’re “cutting edge” and on the ball with new cost-saving tools, according to an expert interviewed by the NYT. Meta, which cut 10% of staff in its VR division last month, recently bragged that AI is allowing entire teams to be reduced to a single human employee. Unfortunately for all of us reading this, the future of work is being surrounded by coworkers who can never check out that new sandwich shop with you for lunch. —WK

Chaos Brewing Meter: /5