China's Cloud Giants Quickly Embrace Autonomous Moltbot AI Agent

China's artificial intelligence hyperscalers have swiftly added cloud support for Moltbot, an open-source AI agent seeing a global surge in popularity. Previously known as Clawdbot, Moltbot is billed as an "AI that actually does things" due to its ability to autonomously execute tasks without step-by-step user instructions.

Credit: CNET

This week, three of China’s largest cloud service providers—Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Volcano Engine, a ByteDance unit—began offering access to Moltbot. These companies provide support from their respective suites of models. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud services unit of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the SCMP.

Moltbot's autonomous task execution has caused waves in the global developer community. This impact briefly lifted shares of US web infrastructure giant Cloudflare in pre-market trading before they later retreated. Smaller cloud providers, including JD.com’s cloud unit and Shanghai-based UCloud, have also integrated Moltbot.

Moltbot was created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger and can send messages, delete emails, and manage files on a user’s computer autonomously. Users interact with the AI agent through messaging apps, and it was developed using another AI coding tool, meaning Steinberger did not write the code himself.

Initially compatible only with foreign messaging applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp, Chinese tech giants have enabled interaction through their own services. These include Alibaba’s workplace collaboration platform DingTalk and Tencent Holdings’ WeCom, the work version of super app WeChat.

However, the rise of Moltbot has been accompanied by privacy concerns. Users must provide significant private data and control over personal applications. This has led some users to utilise separate devices, such as Apple’s Mac Mini, to protect their main devices.

As an open-source tool, Moltbot integrates directly into cloud service providers’ offerings, allowing them to host data themselves. PhD student Zhuang Shanning at Tsinghua University stated he used Moltbot to organise his calendar in Feishu, ByteDance’s enterprise collaboration platform known overseas as Lark.

Shanning noted the changing interaction with AI, explaining, "Before, it was ‘I go out and find the tools’ myself. Now it’s ‘I say one sentence, and it gets it done.’ Further down the line, it may be ‘I don’t need to say anything.’"

Poe Zhao, a Beijing-based tech analyst and founder of Hello China Tech, reported that the tool’s heavy token usage made it expensive to run. In response, some Chinese cloud providers, like Volcano Engine, have introduced fixed-subscription options.

The global AI industry is shifting towards developing AI agents capable of autonomously executing tasks for users. However, their strong autonomy and privacy concerns have prompted questions regarding their regulatory future, including in China.

ByteDance issued a warning about Moltbot’s security and privacy risks. The TikTok owner urged users to regularly check their permission settings, recommending Moltbot be deployed on a dedicated device rather than one containing sensitive information, as it can access all device data, digital accounts, and connect to the internet via multiple ports.

A new AI-powered agentic phone from ByteDance faced pushback from users and domestic rivals, with several widely used Chinese apps restricting its access.

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• Moltbot, an open-source AI agent, has rapidly gained cloud support from major Chinese providers, including Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and ByteDance's Volcano Engine.

• The AI agent autonomously executes tasks like sending messages and managing files, leading to its description as "AI that actually does things."

• Developed by Austrian Peter Steinberger using an AI coding tool, Moltbot has expanded compatibility from foreign messaging apps to Chinese services like DingTalk and WeCom.

Source: SCMP