OpenClaw, the virtual AI agent system that helped spark Wall Street’s $2 trillion sell-off in software stocks, is now in the hands of OpenAI. It’s a win for Chief Executive Sam Altman as far as capturing the zeitgeist, but he now faces the thorny challenge of making this remarkable new form of generative AI — one that doesn’t just say things but does things — secure enough for businesses to use. That could take longer than the market realizes.

Altman’s not alone. Artificial intelligence labs like Anthropic PBC and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are racing to build agents that can take independent action, and all are grappling with the same fundamental tension: The more powerful you make an agent, the riskier it becomes.

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