After Clawdbot, entry-level positions for human white-collar workers are being eliminated.

At three o'clock in the middle of the night, all was quiet. In an apartment, the screen of a silver Mac Mini glowed faintly in the dark. It was writing emails to its owner's contact list, organizing the key points for tomorrow's meeting, and even correcting errors in a piece of code. Meanwhile, its owner was fast asleep, completely unaware. Because he had entrusted this work to a special "employee": a so - called "sleepless lobster" named Clawdbot.

This is not a science - fiction movie but a reality that is unfolding right now.

Clawdbot, which is currently a hit in Silicon Valley, is an open - source project that can transform an ordinary computer into an AI assistant that never takes a break. The "annual salary" of this assistant is about $2400. It never rests, never takes a leave, and its capabilities are constantly growing. As more and more people start using such tools, human work and life are facing an immeasurable upheaval.

01

Resume of the New "Employee"

Let's get to know this new colleague first.

Its hardware is an ordinary Mac Mini (costing about $600). It is connected to one of the most powerful artificial intelligence models currently available (such as Claude Max, with a monthly fee of about $200) through software. Then, with the help of an open - source program, it is linked to daily tools such as email and social software.

Then, something amazing happens: You can instruct it on your way home from work via your mobile phone: "Help me organize the annual reports of these companies and summarize them into three pages." By the time you get home, a clear document may be waiting for you. What's even more interesting is that it has memory. If you casually mentioned last week that you wanted to learn about a certain field, it might send you organized materials over the weekend, just like a considerate partner.

Traditional tools forget once used, but Clawdbot is different - it "remembers". The popular "morning briefing" function among many users automatically generates a summary including news, to - dos, and interest reminders based on the conversations of the past week.

This feeling of "being remembered" is blurring the line between humans and tools. It is no longer a passive tool but is gradually becoming a silent partner with background knowledge. When a tool starts to predict needs and make preparations in advance, a new form of collaborative relationship is budding - although it is currently one - way.

What's the cost? The hardware costs $600, and the annual fee is $2400, which is even lower than the monthly salary of an intern in a big city. It can start with jobs that have clear rules and are highly repetitive: extracting key terms from contracts, drafting reports in fixed formats, writing basic code, organizing meeting minutes...

02

More Powerful but Also More Prone to Caution

Those who have used ChatGPT know that it sometimes "refuses to answer". That is a safety guardrail set by the developers to protect users and themselves.

But Clawdbot has chosen another path: it has basically removed the guardrails.

By doing so, the assistant becomes direct and efficient. You can tell it: "Check the schedule and send a blessing email to customers who have birthdays next week." It will execute immediately without repeated confirmations.

The risks are also clear: Unclear instructions may lead to sending emails to the wrong inbox, and improper permission settings may accidentally open private files during a presentation. There is a practical reminder in the project documentation: "Run it in an independent environment, just as you wouldn't let a visitor use your main computer at will."

This raises a thought - provoking question: Technological development is always accompanied by the redistribution of control. In the past, dangerous tools such as cars and large machinery required licenses and professional training to use; now, powerful AI capabilities are becoming "accessible to the masses" through open - source software. Everyone can have a tireless digital assistant, but they must also be fully responsible for the way they use it.

03

The Tide of the Great Change of the Era Has Reached Our Feet

Throughout history, technological revolutions have always replaced some jobs and created new ones. The spinning machine made handicraftsmen unemployed but created factory jobs; the computer eliminated typists but gave birth to the entire IT industry. People often say that time will solve everything, and the market will find a balance.

But this time, it's different - the change is too fast.

The Industrial Revolution spread over "decades", and a person might only experience one major trend in their lifetime. However, the progress of AI, especially in the past two years, has been updated on a "monthly" or even "weekly" basis. A new model or a new tool may be used and improved by thousands of developers before most people have even heard of it.

This speed brings practical challenges: Designing vocational training courses often takes several years, but by the time the courses are completed, the skills they teach may already be outdated. The adjustment of the labor market, the improvement of the social security system, the discussion of public policies... All these social mechanisms are still operating at the old pace, while the technological wave has reached our feet.

The logo of Clawdbot is a lobster wearing a space helmet named "Klad". This "sleepless lobster" also reminds us to think about a more fundamental question: What is the ultimate meaning of work?

If work is just about completing tasks and creating economic value, then automation is undoubtedly the ultimate direction. But for most people, work is far more than that - it is a connection with society, a source of identity, and the foundation of a sense of achievement and time structure. As more and more "tasks" are automated, we may need to rediscover those values that cannot be automated: in - depth understanding between people, subtle judgments in complex situations, intuition based on long - term experience, and pure curiosity and creativity.

These are the core of being human. They cannot be simplified into instructions, cannot be coded, and cannot be "rented out".

In the future, there may not be a dramatic scenario where robots completely replace humans. Instead, it is more likely to be a quiet infiltration: AI will become an omnipresent "background partner" in work, handling all the structured parts, while humans will be pushed into areas that require more creativity, empathy, and complex judgment. This transformation is not a win - or - lose competition but a long - term re - division of labor.

04

Conclusion

It's late at night, and that small silver computer is still on. The hard - drive light blinks rhythmically, like the steady breathing of the digital age. In every corner of the world, more and more "lobsters" are going online. They never get tired and keep learning.

What we humans need to do may not be to compete with them in speed or endurance but to answer more clearly:

Beyond all the efficient operations, what is the value of those slow, uncertain human thoughts and creations that are unique to humans, and how should they be placed?

This may be the most valuable wake - up call that this "sleepless lobster" brings to us.

This article is written based on public information and is only for information exchange purposes and does not constitute any investment advice.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jinduan" (ID: jinduan006), written by Muyang and published by 36Kr with authorization.