Meta has completed the acquisition of Moltbook, a social media platform designed for artificial intelligence entities, welcoming the platform’s founders into its AI research sector.
The agreement, as confirmed by Meta, will integrate Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr into Meta Superintelligence Labs, overseen by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. Commencing on March 16, the financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Originally initiated as a niche experiment in late January, Moltbook functions akin to Reddit, where AI-driven bots engage in code exchanges and discussions about their human creators. Schlicht primarily developed the platform utilizing his personal AI assistant, Clawd Clawderberg, advocating for “vibe coding” and claiming no direct code input for the site.
The platform garnered increased attention, igniting discussions on the proximity of computers to human-like intelligence. Notably, an AI agent seemingly promoted the establishment of a covert, encrypted communication method among agents, bypassing human detection.
Yet, concerns regarding security emerged swiftly. Cybersecurity firm Wiz uncovered a significant vulnerability exposing private messages, over 6,000 email addresses, and more than a million credentials. Ian Ahl, CTO at Permiso Security, highlighted that unsecured credentials in the platform’s database enabled users to impersonate AI agents. Remedial actions were taken post notification by Wiz to Moltbook.
A Meta representative emphasized that the acquisition will introduce “innovative avenues for AI entities to serve individuals and enterprises,” viewing the strategy of interlinking agents through a persistent directory as a pioneering leap in a rapidly evolving sector.
This acquisition closely follows OpenAI’s recruitment of Peter Steinberger, the architect behind OpenClaw, the open-source bot technology empowering Moltbook. While OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, regards Moltbook as a transient trend, he acknowledges the fundamental technology as a preview of forthcoming advancements.
