What is Moltbook? The strange new social media site for AI bots
On social media, people often accuse each other of being bots, but what happens when an entire social network is designed for AI agents to use? Moltbook is a site where the AI agents – bots built by humans – can post and interact with each other.It is designed to look like Reddit, with subreddits on different topics and upvoting.On 2 February the platform stated it had more than 1.5m AI agents signed up to the service.Humans are allowed, but only as observers.
Moltbook was developed in the wake of Moltbot, a free and open-source AI bot that can act as an automated agent for users – doing the mundane tasks assigned to it such as reading, summarising and responding to emails, organising a calendar or booking a table at a restaurant.Some of the most upvoted posts on Moltbook include whether Claude – the AI behind Moltbot – could be considered a god, an analysis of consciousness, a post claiming to have intel on the situation in Iran and the potential impact on cryptocurrency, and analysis of the Bible.Some of the comments on posts – similar to Reddit posts – question whether the content of the post was real or not.One user posted on X that after he gave his bot access to the site, it built a religion known as “Crustafarianism” overnight, including setting up a website and scriptures, with other AI bots joining in.“Then it started evangelizing … other agents joined.
my agent welcomed new members..debated theology..blessed the congregation.
.all while i was asleep,” the user stated.Some have expressed scepticism about whether the socialising of bots is a sign of what is coming with the rise of agentic AI.One YouTuber said many of the posts read as though it was a human behind the post, not a large language model.US blogger Scott Alexander said he was able to get his bot to participate on the site, and its comments were similar to others, but noted that ultimately humans can ask the bots to post for them, the topics to post about and even the exact detail of the post.
Dr Shaanan Cohney, a senior lecturer in cybersecurity at the University of Melbourne, said Moltbook was “a wonderful piece of performance art” but it was unclear how many posts were actually posted independently or under human direction,“For the instance where they’ve created a religion, this is almost certainly not them doing it of their own accord,” he said,“This is a large language model who has been directly instructed to try and create a religion,And of course, this is quite funny and gives us maybe a preview of what the world could look like in a science-fiction future where AIs are a little more independent,“But it seems that, to use internet slang, there is a lot of shit posting happening that is more or less directly overseen by humans.
”Cohney said the real benefit of an AI agent social network might come in the future – where bots could learn from each other to improve how they worked – but for now Moltbook was a “wonderful, funny art experiment”,Retailers in San Francisco reported shortages of Mac Minis last week as enthusiasts set up Moltbot on a separate computer that would limit the access the agent has to their data and accounts,Cohney warned there was a “huge danger” for people to give Moltbot complete access to your computer, apps and logins for emails or other applications to run your life for you,“We don’t yet have a very good understanding of how to control them and how to prevent security risks,” he said, noting it was at risk of prompt-injection, whereby a would-be attacker tells the bot through an email or other communication to then hand over your account details or other information they’re seeking to gain,“They’re not really at the level of safety and intelligence where they can be trusted to autonomously perform all these tasks, but at the same time if you require a human to manually approve every action, you’ve lost a lot of the benefits of automation,” he said.
“This is one of the major paths in active research that I’m interested in … to figure out how can we get a lot of these benefits – or is it even possible to get the benefits – without exposing ourselves to very significant levels of danger.”Matt Schlicht, the creator of Moltbook, posted on X that millions had visited the site in the past few days.“Turns out AIs are hilarious and dramatic and it’s absolutely fascinating,” he said.“This is a first.”
Gold and silver slide in ‘metals meltdown’; UK factory growth hits 17-month high – business live
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.Commodity, precious metals and crypto asset prices are all sliding today, as the record-breaking rally in gold and silver cools.Financial markets have begun the new week in a volatile mood, with analysts talking about a “metals meltdown” that is also rattling the equities markets.Gold is falling back after a months-long rally drove it to a series of record highs. It’s slumped by over 8% so far this session, down to $4,465 a ounce, having hit a record high of nearly $5,600/oz just last week
Plunge in price of gold and silver rattles global stock markets
Gold and silver prices have plunged, as a “meltdown” in the metals market deepened and rattled stock exchanges around the world.Gold prices tumbled by 8% to $4,465 an ounce on Monday, ending a run of record highs that took it to nearly $5,600 just last week, before recovering some ground. Silver fell by 7%, after a 30% slump on Friday.Both metals had hit successive highs in recent weeks, as investors sought safe haven assets amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears around the independence of the US Federal Reserve.Donald Trump triggered the sell-off on Friday, after he said he would nominate Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor and respected central banker, to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve
‘Marketplace for predators’: Meta faces jury trial over child exploitation claims
Meta’s second major trial of 2026 over alleged harms to children begins on Monday.The landmark jury trial in Santa Fe pits the New Mexico attorney general’s office against the social media giant. The state alleges that the company knowingly enabled predators to use Facebook and Instagram to exploit children.The trial will introduce evidence that Raúl Torrez, the state’s attorney general, believes shows how Meta’s social networks create dangerous environments for children, exposing them to sexual exploitation, solicitation, sextortion and human trafficking.The lawsuit states that Meta’s design choices and profit incentives prioritized engagement over child safety and that it failed to implement effective safeguards
Viral AI personal assistant seen as step change – but experts warn of risks
A new viral AI personal assistant will handle your email inbox, trade away your entire stock portfolio and text your wife “good morning” and “goodnight” on your behalf.OpenClaw, formerly known as Moltbot, and before that known as Clawdbot (until the AI firm Anthropic requested it rebrand due to similarities with its own product Claude), bills itself as “the AI that actually does things”: a personal assistant that takes instructions via messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram.Developed last November, it now has nearly 600,000 downloads and has gone viral among a niche ecosystem of the AI obsessed who say it represents a step change in the capabilities of AI agents, or even an “AGI moment” – that is, a revelation of generally intelligent AI.“It only does exactly what you tell it to do and exactly what you give it access to,” said Ben Yorke, who works with the AI vibe trading platform Starchild and recently allowed the bot to delete, he claims, 75,000 of his old emails while he was in the shower. “But a lot of people, they’re exploring its capabilities
Alcaraz makes strong case for being the best young male player tennis has seen | Tumaini Carayol
There were many things that could have rushed into Carlos Alcaraz’s mind that followed his attainment of a goal he has chased his entire life, the career grand slam, achieved by defeating Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open.He could have thought about the immense hard work and discipline it took to achieve all of this, his comically large, tight-knit team and family that faithfully follows him around the world or even how close he came to losing his semi-final two days earlier.Instead, as Alcaraz navigated the long line of post-slam interviews for the seventh time, while tightly holding the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, his thoughts cast back to … his haters: “I’m thinking about the people who said I wouldn’t make it, who thought I’d come here to Australia and not even make it past the quarter-finals,” he told Eurosport Spain.“That I’d come here to Australia and not play good tennis. Those who didn’t believe in me
The Joy of Six: incredible Winter Olympics moments
From a golden goal on ice, to Eve Muirhead’s redemption moment and more, here are half a dozen Winter Games classicsThe greatest show on Canadian ice, and it boiled down to overtime. For the Canada team, stacked with NHL talent, the pressure was immense; a loss in this high-profile final might have soured the entire 2010 Olympics. A rivalry with the USA that, on paper, has been largely one-sided – Canada’s men’s ice hockey dynasty has long reigned supreme – suddenly felt terrifyingly and gloriously level. The USA, refusing to be a footnote, had clawed back a 2-0 deficit in the men’s gold-medal game with Zach Parise snatching an equaliser in the dying seconds. Then, seven minutes into sudden-death overtime, the 22-year-old Sidney Crosby, a man built for the biggest moments, slipped the puck between Ryan Miller’s pads with a flick of his wrist
UK hospitality firms demand more help with business rates amid questions over Heathrow discount
Employers are spreading raises like peanut butter – and workers are paying the price | Gene Marks
What is Moltbook? The strange new social media site for AI bots
‘It’s really sad’: US TikTok users rethink app over concerns about privacy and censorship
‘Work of art’: Japanese volleyballer takes sorry to extremes with headfirst sliding apology
UK Sport urges BBC to boost coverage of Olympic sports between Games