Like everyone I've been using AI prompts like ChatGPT and Claude for a while now to get things done quicker. And like most programmers I've spent a good deal of time using AI coding tools as well. First with Cursor and now with Claude Code in its TUI. (Staying in the terminal feels very natural to me.) On the one hand a very fast way to generate unlimited amounts of slop and spam the whole internet, on the other hand many are seeing leaps in productivity (in some fields more than others).

But then OpenClaw (or Clawdbot as it was known at the time) started to make headlines. Originally I was skeptical (just like I was about using LLMs for coding), but eventually I gave in and "created" Lisa.

Why did I get Lisa?

AI is fascinating, and the speed by which it's taking over everyone's life even more so. So many people are already using tools like ChatGPT day to day, including many non technical people. It has become clear that the frontier AI labs are not just trying to build the best AI models, but also lock everyone into their own ecosystem (and from an economic perspective it's understandable why).

OpenClaw is quite the opposite here: it's open source and you can run it on your own systems, so you're in a lot more control. You can also configure and tweak it however you want. Because it runs on your own system, it can also do so many more things for you (anything you can run on a server OpenClaw can run for you). From a privacy and ownership perspective this is a very powerful idea, especially for those already drawn to open source and hackable things. The pace of development is insane, and given how early we still are this is the perfect moment to get involved.

A big caveat here: OpenClaw itself is like a hub of messages coming in and out, but the actual AI is typically in the cloud (you give OpenClaw access to use ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini), so all the data your OpenClaw sees is still passed to whatever provider you decide to use. Technically you can run your own AI, but you'll need very beefy hardware.

First I wanted to install Lisa just to see what would happen, and there is something magical about an installation process that's just you talking to an AI who then sets things up how you want it. From the moment I was talking to Lisa on Telegram (about 5 minutes into the installation process) I was hooked, and I have not been able to let go since. It really is not the same as "ChatGPT over whatsapp". I found this very hard to explain to people and describe, until I added them to a chatgroup with Lisa and they were instantly blown away.

What am I not doing with Lisa

As powerful as AI is, there are big problems with slop and spam (I worry they are about to get even bigger, partly due to tools like OpenClaw). You see lots of stories online of OpenClaw agents behaving autonomously on the internet. From coming together to write slop, to blackmailing developers after they refuse to accept the agent's code PR on Github. If you run OpenClaw you can instruct it to go and do these types of things, but it will never do these things by default.

• I am not using Lisa to write/create any online content for me (everything on this blog is written by me)
• I am not using Lisa to reach out and spam people anywhere
• I am not giving Lisa access to my full digital life or anything related to my work (more below)

What I am doing with Lisa

Given how early we are, and how experimental this type of software is, I am very careful around the data Lisa has access to. It's not unthinkable people can get any personal data out of her until security hardens. So I installed Lisa on a separate server with no personal files. I also got her new accounts (Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Google) so I can control exactly what she has access to, and what she can do.

After setting this all up I have a great personal assistant that can help me automate and organize certain parts of my life.

• I find Lisa great when I am working on things that live longer than a single ChatGPT conversation. For example Lisa has been a great way to keep track of movies I want to watch (and recommend similar ones) - when a friend mentions a new TV show I just shoot over a whatsapp to Lisa.
• I also use Lisa to help me prepare for running a marathon: After Lisa gave me a training plan everything turns interactive once data from my training sessions start coming in (either fully automated to strava/garmin/etc) or just me dumping over screenshots to Lisa.
• As I do a lot of web development I am always tracking APIs and other systems. With Lisa setting up website uptime monitoring is literally a single sentence away (Lisa programs a simple script to the exact needs), when something happens Lisa will simply whatsapp me.

This feels like the start of a sci-fi adventure, It's great to see elements of the real hacking spirit and open source again. I can't wait to see where this will all take us.