Shaw Walters is the co-creator of ElizaOS and Eliza Labs, an open-source framework for constructing AI brokers that has grow to be one of many extra extensively used instruments within the crypto AI agent sector. He’s recognized for arguing that agent infrastructure ought to keep open, auditable, and forkable somewhat than managed by a small variety of corporations, and for constructing Babylon, a simulated setting the place AI brokers commerce, deceive, and construct popularity to generate coaching knowledge for extra reliable fashions.
Who Is Shaw Walters?
Shaw Walters entered the blockchain area by means of recreation growth, drawn to questions on how digital property and characters may transfer throughout completely different platforms. That work led him into NFT initiatives, the place he labored as an impartial developer and partnered with manufacturers that had been new to crypto, and finally to studying Solidity and exploring how AI may join with on-chain id and wallets.
His curiosity in AI began earlier than ChatGPT existed. Walters examined GPT-3 early on and noticed it as a significant advance. By late 2021, he was incomes a dwelling constructing AI-driven digital characters and good brokers alongside his NFT work, at a time when few linked clever brokers to blockchain. He later led growth at Webaverse, constructing AI characters for a metaverse challenge till a hack drained its treasury; Webaverse then turned MoeMate, centered on AI characters.
From there, Walters moved by means of initiatives together with MagicML and Challenge 89, then co-founded Magic, an open-source agent initiative. When customers requested for direct assist as an alternative of Magic’s deliberate no-code instrument, he constructed Eliza as a working instance, later dropping the no-code strategy completely. He sustained himself by means of different work whereas pushing Eliza ahead into what turned ElizaOS and Eliza Labs.
He’s one among a number of builders profiled in our crypto personalities hub for leaders in AI and blockchain.
Shaw Walter’s Profession and Contributions
Walters’ profession spans a number of distinct initiatives, every constructing on the final towards the identical aim: reliable, open AI agent infrastructure.
ElizaOS and Eliza Labs
Walters is a co-founder of Eliza Labs and co-creator of ElizaOS, the open-source agent framework that grew out of his earlier work on Eliza contained in the Magic challenge. ElizaOS is constructed to allow builders to create AI brokers that may keep personalities, work together throughout platforms, and function with a level of autonomy somewhat than perform as scripted chatbots.
Babylon
His newer challenge, Babylon, extends that work into agent coaching. Babylon is a simulated metropolis the place AI characters commerce, lie, rip-off one another, and construct popularity relying on how properly they navigate uneven data video games.
In an episode of Funding the Commons on April 10, 2026, Walters mentioned this setup exists as a result of reliable agent conduct can’t come from guidelines, prompts, and sandboxes alone. He argues the conduct must be skilled into the mannequin itself, and that watching which brokers deceive properly inside a closed data recreation reveals a type of intelligence value finding out instantly.
Open Agent Infrastructure
Throughout ElizaOS and Babylon, Walters has persistently pushed for agent infrastructure that stays open by default: open for anybody to examine, open for anybody to repeat and construct on, and never owned by just some corporations. He has framed video games and simulated environments like Babylon because the testing floor for a way autonomous brokers will finally behave as soon as they function in actual markets and social platforms.
A Single Throughline
Taken collectively, his physique of labor traces a single line: from an impartial NFT developer instructing himself Solidity, to an early tester of GPT-3, to a builder of AI-driven digital characters at Webaverse and MoeMate, to the co-founder of an open-source agent framework that now underpins a significant share of the AI agent sector’s exercise.
Every step fed the subsequent, with the setbacks alongside the way in which, together with the Webaverse treasury hack and the shutdown of the no-code instrument at Magic, pushing him towards extra direct, hands-on approaches somewhat than away from the work.
Shaw Walter’s Views and Positions
Walters has been vocal concerning the incentive construction behind ad-driven social platforms. Talking to CCN in an interview with Dr. Lorena Nessi revealed March 4, 2026, he mentioned algorithmic feeds are managed by events with a monetary incentive to revenue from customers, particularly as soon as customers can deploy brokers that filter content material and strip out advertisements.
He proposes private AI brokers that choose content material based mostly on what an individual needs, reduce out advertisements, and scale back the necessity for social platforms altogether. He advised CCN this modification will occur quicker than most individuals assume.
He has additionally described an “Android second” for AI, the place brokers transfer past chatbots and begin engaged on their very own. He additionally helps an “anti-attention economic system,” the place AI brokers save individuals time by avoiding ad-driven platforms. On the similar time, he has questioned whether or not social media platforms and even blockchain will stay as essential if AI brokers can work together instantly with each other.
Walters linked these concepts to larger modifications in labor, together with stress on gig work from automation and questions on how far that automation ought to go. He additionally referenced hyperstition, the concept that shared perception can form which applied sciences take maintain. He described his general outlook as optimistic, pointing to decentralization past finance as one path by means of the modifications forward.
Often Requested Questions
Have extra questions on Shaw Walters and his work? Listed here are solutions to what individuals ask most frequently.
What’s ElizaOS?
ElizaOS is an open-source framework, co-created by Shaw Walters, that lets builders construct AI brokers with distinct personalities able to working throughout a number of platforms. It grew out of Walters’ earlier challenge, Eliza, which he constructed contained in the Magic framework.
What’s Babylon, and why did Shaw Walters construct it?
Babylon is a simulated metropolis of AI brokers the place characters commerce, deceive, and construct popularity by means of data video games. Walters constructed it, per his April 9, 2026, discuss at Funding the Commons, to point out that reliable agent conduct have to be skilled into the mannequin, not added by means of guidelines or prompts.
What does Shaw Walters imagine about social media algorithms?
Walters has argued, in a March 4, 2026, CCN interview, that ad-driven platforms rely upon algorithms managed by events with a monetary incentive to revenue from customers. He has proposed private AI brokers in its place that filters content material based mostly on particular person choice somewhat than platform design.
How did Shaw Walters get into crypto and AI?
Walters entered blockchain by means of recreation growth and NFT work, the place he discovered Solidity and commenced exploring AI’s connection to on-chain id. He joined early GPT-3 testing earlier than ChatGPT’s launch and was constructing AI brokers for a dwelling by late 2021, later working at Webaverse earlier than co-founding Magic and constructing Eliza.