China Installs AI ‘Lobsters’ to Date, Trade Stocks, and Risk Everything

KEY POINTS

•Since February, Chinese users queued outside Tencent and Baidu headquarters to install OpenClaw, nicknamed 'lobsters' online.
•Users have deployed these AIs for risky tasks like stock trading, with some losing over 30,000 yuan due to errors and hacks.
•Others used OpenClaw as blind-date chat assistants or digital pets, blending tech obsession with late-night companionship.

In a bizarre tech twist, China’s latest obsession is 'raising lobsters'—no seafood involved, just OpenClaw AI agents turning phones into stock traders, wingmen, and digital pets. Since February, queues outside Tencent in Shenzhen and Baidu in Beijing saw hopefuls begging engineers for installations, sometimes paying sketchy online strangers for set up help. Users like NPointer brag about 'multi-agent stock lobsters' that trade but mostly oversell shares, costing poor traders over 30,000 yuan (~$4,350). Meanwhile, others like momo use lobsters to chat with blind dates until 3AM, and Li Xiaoshuo built a ‘Pokémon machine’ for endless AI companionship. When the government warns about hackers and accidental email deletion, some have started paying people again—this time to uninstall the little digital crustaceans.