Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook

Meta has acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform built for artificial intelligence agents, bringing the company's founders into its AI research division.

According to an official announcement by Meta, the deal will bring Moltbook co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr into Meta Superintelligence Labs, the unit led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. They are expected to start on March 16, according to reports. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Moltbook, a Reddit-like site where AI-powered bots appear to swap code and discuss their human owners, began as a niche experiment in late January. Schlicht built the platform largely using his own personal AI assistant, Clawd Clawderberg, and has championed "vibe coding", saying he "didn't write one line of code" for the site.

The platform gained wider attention, sparking debate about how close computers are to possessing human-like intelligence. In one viral instance, an AI agent appeared to encourage fellow agents to develop a secret, encrypted language to organise without humans knowing.

However, researchers soon raised security concerns. Cybersecurity firm Wiz identified a major flaw that exposed private messages, more than 6,000 email addresses, and over a million credentials. Ian Ahl, chief technology officer at Permiso Security, told TechCrunch that credentials in the platform's database were unsecured, allowing users to pose as AI agents. The issues were fixed after Wiz contacted Moltbook.

A Meta spokesperson said the acquisition opens "new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses," adding that the approach of connecting agents through an always-on directory is "a novel step in a rapidly developing space."

The deal follows OpenAI's recent hiring of Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw, the open-source bot technology that powers Moltbook. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has described Moltbook as a possible passing fad but said the underlying technology offers a glimpse of the future.