Eliza Labs CEO: AGI Already Here, Not a Decade Away
At ETHDenver, Eliza Labs CEO Shaw Walters argued that current leading AI models already meet the definition of AGI—a position that contradicts OpenAI and Anthropic leaders who warn AGI could emerge within the next decade.
Key Takeaway
Eliza Labs CEO claims AGI exists now, not in 10 years, signaling faster-than-expected AI autonomy.
Eliza Labs CEO Shaw Walters says artificial general intelligence has already arrived. Speaking with Decrypt at ETHDenver, Walters argued that current leading AI models meet his definition of AGI, a claim that puts him at odds with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who both warn AGI could arrive within the next decade.
Walters said he completely believes current systems demonstrate general intelligence, even though they learn differently than humans. He rejects the idea of a single dominant AI God emerging. Life loves variants, he said, suggesting multiple AGI systems will coexist rather than one taking over.
The Eliza Labs founder, who previously ran no-code AI platform Magic before pivoting based on community feedback, has watched AI capabilities explode since the GPT-3 era. Back then, he said most of his work involved putting training wheels on a baby, struggling to get structured responses for action calling. GPT-4 changed everything in 2023. It gave him structured responses that finally made functional agents possible, though they remained limited.
Eliza Labs launched in 2024 as ai16z, building the open-source ElizaOS framework for autonomous AI agents on blockchains. The framework achieved a ₱144.15 billion ($2.5 billion) valuation and trended globally on GitHub. OpenClaw, one AI agent project, surged to 147,000 GitHub stars in February 2025 and spawned Moltbook, an AI social media platform. Coinbase launched Agentic Wallets on Base, while Fetch.ai agents now complete purchases using Visa infrastructure.
Walters warned that autonomous agents introduce security risks including prompt injection and wallet compromises. You're dealing with something more like a human and less like a calculator, he said. It's going to do stupid things sometimes, and there's no way to build a super secure system that keeps them from doing something dumb.
Eliza Labs and Walters filed a federal lawsuit against X Corporation in September 2025 after X demanded a ₱2,883,011 ($50,000) monthly Enterprise License for API access.
This article was written based on reporting from Decrypt.
