How can we be masters of technology after the “Lobster” roller coaster?

China News Service report Recently, the trend of “lobster” on the Internet has changed like a roller coaster. A few days ago, the entire Internet was still buzzing with thousands of people queuing up with number plates to wait for the installation of this AI tool called OpenClaw. In the blink of an eye, the hot topic became how to completely uninstall it, and there is also a fee for uninstalling it.

Why the sharp turn? Because officials sounded the risk alert. The National Internet Emergency Center and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued reminders one after another, stating that directly naming “lobster” poses serious security risks. This is not groundless, there have been real cases: money in someone’s account was transferred over the air, computers were remotely controlled by hackers, and even work files accumulated for many years were cleared with one click.

So, why were everyone struggling to get on the bus in the first place? The root cause is a fear of falling behind, which is the so-called “FOMO”. On the Internet, it is rendered as a key to the future that can automatically handle everything and allow you to completely “win”. It seems that if you don’t use it, you will be left behind by the times. This widespread anxiety quickly turned into real consumption.

Want to run it yourself? Hardware costs a lot of money. Cloud server for rental? It is a “bottomless pit” of continuous consumption. It even spawned the bizarre “assassin installation” service, which can charge thousands of dollars for door-to-door service. This does not include its daily expenses as a “Token burner” – calling advanced AI models to handle tasks, easily burning hundreds or thousands of yuan a month. A developer woke up to a bill worth tens of thousands of yuan because his key was leaked. This has long gone beyond the scope of “trying new tools” and is more like “feeding an expensive unknown”.

What’s more terrifying than burning money is the security door that opens. When you give it extremely high system permissions, it is equivalent to opening a backdoor in your own digital world. Data shows that there are hundreds of thousands of computers running “Lobster” around the world in a state of “streaking” without protection. A more hidden crisis is hidden in the official market: about 12% of so-called “functional plug-ins” have been detected with malicious code, specifically designed to steal your passwords, keys and other core information. It’s like hiring a housekeeper who brings with him a “service team” that hides thieves.

The “roller coaster” of “Lobster” from enthusiastic pursuit to panic withdrawal has injected a sobering agent into the public: in the era of technological explosion, our desire for “tools” is often mixed with a deep anxiety about “falling behind”. Perhaps the most important revelation it gives us is that real initiative never comes from blindly chasing or possessing a tool, but from clear understanding and control. For most ordinary people, in the face of new technologies, it is far more important to “let the bullets fly for a while” and maintain the patience to observe and learn than to “get in first” and fall into risks. No matter the technology, you should be the ultimate owner of the tool.

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