Chinese local governments offer OpenClaw project subsidies as security questions linger

Some local governments in China have rushed to support the adoption of OpenClaw, the artificial intelligence agent sweeping the country, even as warnings about privacy and security risks linger in the background.In Shenzhen, China’s southern tech hub, the AI and robotics agency of Longgang district published a draft on Saturday proposing sweeping measures, including subsidies of up to 2 million yuan (US$290,000) for approved projects.The initiative came a day after nearly a thousand people queued outside Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings’ Shenzhen headquarters to have OpenClaw installed for free by company engineers. Chinese social media platforms have also been flooded with posts offering paid services to install the software.The hi-tech district of Wuxi in the eastern Jiangsu province announced a similar policy on Monday, offering subsidies of between 1 million yuan and 5 million yuan to encourage innovative industrial applications of OpenClaw such as quality inspection and equipment maintenance solutions.The moves come after the National Vulnerability DataBase (NVDB), a cybersecurity information centre under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cautioned that improper configuration of the software would expose users to high-level security risks, leading to issues such as cyberattacks or privacy leaks.People queue outside Tencent Holdings’ Shenzhen headquarters to have OpenClaw installed. Photo: HandoutThe warning came amid a nationwide rush to embrace OpenClaw, a trend dubbed “raise the lobster” for its promise of performing tasks on users’ behalf.