China’s OpenClaw users paid to install viral AI. Now they spend to remove it

On Xianyu, the second-hand marketplace under Alibaba, the keyword “uninstall OpenClaw” was trending on Thursday, based on a search by the South China Morning Post.

Records showed that a Shanghai-based seller named “mojito lime water” charged 299 yuan ($43.55) to uninstall the agent and had completed more than 10 transactions. Providers in other major cities were offering similar services.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, which falls under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), launched a new initiative to develop standards for “Claw” agents that address their opaque decision-making processes, according to a statement on Thursday.

The institute said it would seek input from companies and industry experts for “Reliable Capability Requirements for Intelligent Assistant Agents (Claw) Products”, an important part of the standards.

These would outline requirements focused on quality control and the behavioural reliability of Claw products, including manageable user permissions and transparent execution processes, it said.