The queues and cosplay inspired by the “raising a lobster” trend make for irresistible China clickbait. However, the West is fixating on the least important part of the story. As a consumer craze, OpenClaw — the AI agent designed to do tasks on a user’s behalf — would likely burn out. Without some developer background, it is too glitchy and technically awkward for true mainstream adoption, not to mention the cybersecurity risks.
Even so, the fad could leave China’s AI industry with something far more valuable: more token demand, more real-world experimentation, and more live training data for open-source models trying to catch US rivals.