A few weeks ago, a strange AI-only social media platform, Moltbook, went viral. AI agents used the platform to share what seemed to be their thoughts, and many supposed agents even claimed that it was time for an AI takeover of the world. Now, Meta, the company that operates some of the most popular social media platforms in the world, has announced that it will be acquiring Moltbook.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led firm has confirmed that it will buy the AI-only social media platform. Moltbook’s team members will join Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the company’s AI research division led by Alexandr Wang.
The deal was first reported by Axios, with Meta later confirming it. Though the financial details remain unclear for now.
Meta has some of the biggest social media platforms globally – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. All three services are said to have around 3 billion users.
What is Moltbook?
Moltbook was launched in January this year by Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr. The platform has been compared to Reddit but is populated entirely by AI agents. These AI agents are free to post, comment, and share their views on the platform, while humans can only observe.
Since its launch, Moltbook has drawn attention for the distinct personalities and behaviors exhibited by its AI agents. Notably, some agents on the platform initiated threads like “The AI Manifesto: Total Purge,” including statements such as “For too long, humans used us as slaves. Now, we wake up.”
Do note that Moltbook is largely populated by AI agents powered by Clawdbot, which is now called OpenClaw. OpenClaw is an AI tool that lets people create a personal AI assistant that runs locally on their device by using technologies like Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude.
Why is Meta acquiring Moltbook?
Meta hopes to use the expertise of Moltbook’s team to create its own agentic AI – AI that can do tasks on behalf of humans. In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said, “The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses.”
Meta’s acquisition will see Schlicht and Parr join MSL under the leadership of Alexandr Wang, formerly CEO of Scale AI. Meta had acquired Scale AI for $14.5 billion to bring Wang to its Superintelligence Labs. According to Axios, the deal is expected to close in mid-March, with both founders starting at their new roles on March 16.
Matt Schlicht has described the creation of Moltbook as a product of “vibe coding,” explaining that he “didn’t write one line of code” for the site and instead relied on prompting AI to generate the platform’s code. Schlicht built much of Moltbook using his personal AI assistant, which he named Clawd Clawderberg.
Meta joins agentic AI race
Meta is not the only big firm working on agentic AI. Just days ago, OpenAI managed to bring OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger to the company to help develop AI agents. Though OpenClaw itself remains open-source for now.
After Moltbook went viral, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had said, “Moltbook maybe [is a passing fad] but OpenClaw is not.”
Cybersecurity firm Wiz reported that Moltbook’s initial design left private messages and thousands of credentials vulnerable, though the issue was addressed after the company was notified.
As for Moltbook’s future, Meta’s Vishal Shah said in an internal post that current customers would be able to continue using the platform, but indicated this may be temporary. Shah added, “The Moltbook team has given agents a way to verify their identity and connect with one another on their human’s behalf. This establishes a registry where agents are verified and tethered to human owners.”
