<p>Recently, an open-source AI intelligent software named &#34;OpenClaw&#34; (referred to as &#34;Lobster&#34; in mainland China) has sparked a craze in the mainland, with Tencent (700) founder Ma Huateng stating, &#34;I didn't expect it to be this popular.&#34; This has even led to a surge in several related concept stocks, with MiniMax (100) rising nearly 24% to HKD 997 on Monday. However, local AI experts interviewed by Sing Tao Daily pointed out that despite the broad prospects, the application threshold for such advanced AI entities is relatively high, facing challenges of high costs and security risks, and there is still a long way to go before widespread adoption.</p>
<h2>Phenomenal Application Emerges, Tech Companies Compete to &#34;Raise Lobsters&#34;</h2>
<p>OpenClaw, created by developer Peter Steinberger, who has been recruited by OpenAI, can automate tedious tasks across multiple applications through natural language commands. In just three weeks, it surpassed the 30-year download record of the virtual machine Linux on GitHub, becoming the most popular foundational software project in history.</p>
<p>To seize the opportunity for AI implementation, mainland cloud giants are competing to &#34;attract customers.&#34; Alibaba (9988) under Alibaba Cloud and Baidu (9888) under Baidu Intelligent Cloud have successively launched &#34;one-click deployment&#34; services, while Meituan (3690) has also partnered with Lenovo to offer &#34;remote deployment&#34; services. According to Alibaba Cloud's official website, &#34;Based on OpenClaw and Alibaba Cloud's Bai Lian large model platform, AI employees can be deployed to work through chat tools like DingTalk in just four quick steps.&#34;</p>
<p>In addition, Tencent (700) is even more proactive, providing free offline installations for over a thousand users in Shenzhen, and its cloud-based &#34;Shrimp Breeder&#34; has surpassed 100,000 users. It is reported that Tencent is secretly testing a local one-click startup package named &#34;QClaw,&#34; further lowering the installation threshold for ordinary users and supporting domestic models such as Kimi and MiniMax.</p>
<h2>Domestic Large Models Shine, MiniMax Receives Favorable Ratings from Morgan Stanley</h2>
<p>Among them, MiniMax has launched the cloud AI assistant &#34;MaxClaw,&#34; achieving multi-end collaboration between mobile and web platforms, showing strong commercial momentum. Morgan Stanley's report indicates that MiniMax's annual recurring revenue (ARR) surged 50% to USD 150 million in just two months, giving it an &#34;overweight&#34; rating and a target price of HKD 990. The stock rose over 24% to HKD 1,000 on Monday, closing at HKD 997.</p>
<p>In fact, in the latest benchmark test specifically for OpenClaw, PinchBench, domestic large models performed impressively. Besides the champion Google Gemini, the mainland AI unicorn MiniMax M2.1 and Kimi K2.5 achieved success rates of 93.6% and 93.4%, respectively, securing second and third places, outperforming well-known overseas large models such as Claude and GPT-4o
It is worth noting that MiniMax announced the launch of two new skills on the same day: the Voice Maker voice model and the Music Maker music model. Based on the deep integration of MiniMax Speech 2.8 voice technology and Music 2.5+ music model, users can enable AI assistants to have customized voice tones and multilingual dubbing capabilities through the OpenClaw platform or MiniMax's MaxClaw, and even create complete songs and vocal humming demos.</p>
<h2>High Threshold and High Cost Not Suitable for Ordinary Users</h2>
<p>Regarding the market's enthusiasm, local AI expert and DotAI co-founder Yang Guangze believes that OpenClaw indicates that AI will evolve from a &#34;tool&#34; to a &#34;digital employee.&#34; He describes its core technology as a &#34;Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)&#34; that can be learned by AI. Additionally, SOP refers to internal procedures designed to execute complex tasks within limited time and resources. However, Yang Guangze candidly states that OpenClaw is not suitable for ordinary users, primarily because it heavily relies on users providing clear, structured, and mature SOPs. Ordinary users expect OpenClaw to &#34;understand intent,&#34; but at this stage, it requires users to explicitly &#34;define processes.&#34;</p>
<p>Designing, testing, and optimizing a flawless SOP is itself a high-technical-threshold task. If the SOP is not sufficiently refined, errors can easily occur during execution, and each erroneous attempt may mean wasted API costs.</p>
<p>Since the operation of OpenClaw requires continuous calls to cloud-based large model APIs and consumes a large number of tokens, Yang Guangze analyzes that &#34;OpenClaw's operation heavily relies on calling APIs of models like Gemini, and these services are charged on a usage basis. Every seemingly simple action may trigger multiple API calls behind the scenes. For example, the cost of processing a task involving 10,000 photos could reach thousands of dollars, directly paid to the API provider, which is an unpredictable and considerable expense for ordinary users.&#34;</p>
<p>Li Jinghua, chairman of the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association, also explains that OpenClaw is essentially just a &#34;toy&#34; and is difficult to replace any existing tools or applications. Li Jinghua further reveals that he has spent thousands of dollars after only a few weeks of use, as each call to the tool and API incurs costs far exceeding typical AI monthly subscription plans. If high logical reasoning capabilities are pursued, more expensive models must be selected.</p>
<h2>Significant Security Concerns: Data Loss in Case of Hacking</h2>
<p>In addition, OpenClaw comes with severe security concerns. Yang Guangze points out that users must grant OpenClaw very high permissions, and once the system is hacked, all authorized sensitive data and assets will face significant risks. &#34;But if permissions are not granted, it can't do anything.&#34; Li Jinghua also notes that granting too many permissions to AI carries high risks; for instance, an email from a senior security official at Meta was mistakenly deleted by OpenClaw. He believes that OpenClaw is currently not smart enough and lacks security standards, making it unwise for enterprises to adopt it hastily
He bluntly stated that as major manufacturers launch their own versions, this free open-source product may soon be eliminated, serving only as an experimental step towards conscious AI.</p>
<p>Yip Man-Han, deputy director of the Entrepreneurship Incubation Center at the University of San Francisco, reminded the public to be highly vigilant about its usage safety and not to rashly install related programs on personal mobile phones, computers, and other main devices. He pointed out that while the related tools are powerful, the potential risks are quite high, and ordinary users lack awareness of secure command settings. If they directly authorize the main device for use, it can easily lead to the leakage of personal information such as banking app and email passwords, and even result in unauthorized credit card spending. Many American users prefer to purchase devices individually due to risk prevention considerations. He suggested that users could opt for a VPS cloud virtual server that costs only twenty to thirty dollars a month as an independent operating environment, authorizing only specific functions for use, and setting clear command frameworks and security guidelines to achieve risk isolation.</p>
<h2>Future &#34;Digital Employees&#34; Will Transform Workflows</h2>
<p>Regarding the future of OpenClaw, Yang Guangze believes the trend will be for professional companies to provide &#34;productized&#34; AI intelligent employee entities, rather than allowing users to configure them themselves. &#34;In the future, ordinary enterprises will directly 'hire' 'digital employees' provided by professional service providers.&#34; He stated that these &#34;digital employees&#34; will be deeply integrated into the company's workflows, such as directly joining company WhatsApp groups or participating in Zoom meetings. Most importantly, the service providers will take on the responsibility for security and permission management, thoroughly addressing personal users' security concerns</p>

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<p>Recently, the open-source AI software OpenClaw has sparked a craze in mainland China, with related concept stocks like MiniMax experiencing significant increases. Despite its broad prospects, experts warn that its application threshold is high, facing cost and security risks. OpenClaw can automate the execution of multiple tasks and has quickly become a popular foundational software. Companies such as Alibaba Cloud and Baidu Intelligent Cloud have launched related services, and Tencent is also actively promoting its cloud services. MiniMax's AI assistant MaxClaw is showing strong commercialization momentum, with rapidly growing annual recurring revenue</p>

- The open-source AI software "OpenClaw" has gained significant popularity in mainland China, prompting notable increases in related stocks, such as MiniMax, which surged nearly 24%.  
- Chinese AI experts highlight that while the technology has great potential, its high operational costs and applicable requirements pose challenges, making it less suitable for average users.  
- There are also serious security concerns, as OpenClaw requires extensive user permissions, risking sensitive data loss if compromised, emphasizing the need for cautious adoption in businesses.

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Tencent

TENCENT

Alibaba

Tencent Holdings Limited

BIDU-SW

BABA-W

Baidu

Global X Data Center & Dgtl Infrs ETF

SPDR S&P Software

iShares MSCI China

Krne Csi China Internet

Global X Cloud Computing ETF

iShares Expanded Tech Software Sector ETF

BABA 2x Long Daily ETF - GraniteShares

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KraneShares 2x Long BABA Daily ETF

OpenClaw Lobster Tide heralds the era of digital employees, and the stock market is also stirring up speculation. However, experts warn of risks: "Excessive authorization can lead to arbitrary carding."