Meta Admits Muse Was Heavily Inspired by OpenClaw
Meta says Muse was built from scratch but heavily inspired by OpenClaw, after users found matching workspace files and near identical SOUL.md content.
Summary
On September 22, 2026, Nat Friedman, head of product at Meta Superintelligence Labs and former GitHub CEO, acknowledged that Muse was heavily inspired by OpenClaw, while insisting Meta built it from scratch. Friedman, who joined Meta in 2025 alongside Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, used OpenClaw in January 2026, bought hundreds of Mac minis for the MSL team, and said colleagues embraced it and other personal agents. Meta wants Muse to make the concept safe, secure, easy to use and scalable to billions.
The admission followed AI app cofounder Ansh Nanda’s viral X claim that Muse was OpenClaw for mainstream users. Muse described similarities between its system files and OpenClaw’s as a match, while users identified the same workspace filenames and nearly identical SOUL.md content governing personality, tone, values, boundaries and expertise. Friedman did not dispute those findings, saying OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger got the design choices right. OpenClaw is open source, and OpenAI brought Steinberger aboard earlier in 2026. The episode recalls Meta’s replication of Snapchat’s Stories format, but Muse has recently reached No. 1 on the US App Store and is outpacing ChatGPT’s launch when platform and market availability are compared. Meta offered no further comment.
Positives
- Muse recently reached No. 1 on the US App Store.
- Comparable platform and market data shows Muse outpacing ChatGPT’s launch.
- Hundreds of Mac minis purchased for MSL indicate substantial internal adoption of OpenClaw and other personal agents.
- Billions of potential users could access a safer, simpler personal agent if Meta achieves Friedman’s stated goal.
Risks & concerns
- Users found matching workspace filenames and nearly identical SOUL.md content across Muse and OpenClaw.
- Muse itself characterized the system file similarities as a match rather than a coincidence.
- Friedman did not dispute the file comparisons, saying Peter Steinberger had made the right design choices.
- Meta provided no additional technical explanation supporting its claim that Muse was built from scratch.
- Meta’s earlier replication of Snapchat’s Stories format intensifies scrutiny of Muse’s originality.