Meta says Muse was heavily inspired by OpenClaw

Meta says its Muse AI assistant was built from scratch but was heavily inspired by OpenClaw, an open-source project. The statement follows online comparisons of the two assistants’ workspace files and content.

Nat Friedman, head of product at Meta’s Superintelligence Labs (MSL), said on X that the team wanted Muse to be something like OpenClaw that could be made safe, secure, easy to use, and scalable to billions of people. He also said the team had become enthusiastic about using OpenClaw.

Ansh Nanda, an AI app co-founder, had described Muse as OpenClaw for ordinary users. Users comparing the systems noted that Muse and OpenClaw used some of the same workspace filenames. They also pointed to SOUL.md, a Markdown file that defines an AI agent’s personality, communication style, values, boundaries, and expertise. One comparison found that the files’ content was nearly identical.

Asked why Muse used the same filenames and similar SOUL.md content, Friedman did not dispute the comparison. He said the team believed Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw’s creator, had designed those elements well. Meta said it had nothing to add beyond Friedman’s statement. Muse has recently reached No. 1 on the U.S. App Store, while data indicates it is outpacing ChatGPT’s launch in direct comparisons of platform availability.