Google Bans AI Ultra Users Linked to OpenClaw Framework

Google restricted access to its Gemini AI Ultra premium plan and Antigravity coding assistant for users linked to the open-source framework OpenClaw. The company cited a zero tolerance policy regarding terms of service violations, alleging that accounts used OAuth-based third-party tools to power non-Antigravity products, which led to harmful or unauthorized activities.

Varun Mohan, an engineer at Google DeepMind, defended the restrictions, stating that malicious usage of the Antigravity backend had degraded service quality for other users. This necessitated a rapid shutdown of access for those not using the product as intended. However, some affected users reported conflicting information from Google One support, which initially identified the account restrictions as a known WAF bug.

Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw, described the company's actions as draconian and announced he would remove support for the tool. The restrictions mirror similar moves by Anthropic, which banned OAuth tokens in external tools due to security risks. Following the controversy, OpenAI hired Steinberger to develop the next generation of personal agents.