AI Agents know no boundaries, yet developers are filled with love and conflict
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AI Agents know no boundaries, yet developers are filled with love and conflict
Conflict is a zero-sum game that leaves both sides damaged; only cooperation can create net gains.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily
At the start of the new year, two leading projects in the AI Agent sector, ai16z and swarms, both hit new all-time highs in market capitalization.
While this should have been a moment of shared celebration, Shaw, founder of ai16z, launched a scathing attack on Kye Gomez, developer behind swarms, accusing him of “not knowing how to code” and having a history of fraud, directly targeting his “character.” Kye had previously drawn widespread attention for dropping out of high school at age 19, being hailed as a "prodigy."
The public feud caused both projects to briefly drop over 20%, but they recovered within a day. Notably, swarms continued its rise, reaching a new peak of $0.60.
This incident has once again brought into focus the complex web of personal relationships, rivalries, and alliances among developers driving the AI Agent space. In this article, Odaily Planet Daily provides a brief overview of key relationships between recent representative AI Agent developers, offering insight into how these Devs influence AI Agent projects and related Meme coin price movements.
The Central Node: Shaw, Founder of ai16z
According to CoinGecko data, at the time of writing, ai16z is trading at $2.17 with a 7-day increase of 70%, boasting a market cap of approximately $2.4 billion—ranking third in the AI Agent sector, behind only Base ecosystem AI Agent token leader VIRTUAL and established AI concept token FET.
Such strong performance has naturally drawn massive attention to its founder, Shaw. His frequent offline roadshows and close engagement with community members across regions have elevated his voice to be seen as “one of the important signals in the AI Agent field.” His earlier efforts promoting Space-based online conferences for AI Agent development education are regarded as pioneering acts of “deep integration between AI and Crypto.”
His active public presence has earned Shaw many supporters, but also sparked conflicts with other project developers.
Relationship map of AI Agent developers
Shaw vs Kye: Openly Mutual Dislike
Shaw had previously criticized Kye, the developer behind swarms. On December 21, 2024, he posted: “I really hate calling people out publicly. It’s a huge risk to our project, makes a lot of people nervous, and I don’t want to discourage hardworking developers. But some people steal others’ work and try to take credit for it.”
Shaw shared a post from August 2023 on the Reddit machine learning forum, pointing to signs that a GitHub repository—belonging to Kye, the developer behind Swarms—may have involved stolen work. Commenters noted that Kye had directly copy-pasted code from another codebase. “Based on his commit frequency and code content, Kye most likely used ChatGPT to generate code,” one user remarked.
Reddit post and comment section allegations
However, Shaw’s most recent criticism of Kye was far more intense than before.
After Shaw’s tweet, the official X account of swarms responded: “Could you point out exactly which code is problematic so we can fix it?”
Shaw fired back immediately: “You’re a thief and a fraud. People from Princeton and senior OpenAI members like Gwern have evidence.” The links and screenshots referenced prior claims that Kye’s code was auto-generated by ChatGPT.
Shaw’s rebuttals and supporting evidence
In response to Shaw’s accusations, Kye shifted tone completely—from confrontation to friendliness. “If you have any questions about swarms, please submit feedback and we’ll fix issues immediately. We are committed to delivering a seamless AI Agent building experience for everyone.”
When Shaw first criticized Kye on December 22 last year, Kye reacted strongly. He claimed that Shaw had sold tokens, harming the project and causing investor losses, while Kye himself had never sold his holdings in swarms or mcs, positioning himself as the true advocate for functional and practical AI Agents. After Shaw blocked him, Kye mocked in return and launched personal attacks, labeling Shaw, Eliza, and ai16z-related figures and projects as scams.
Shaw & a16z crypto CTO: “Online Friends via DM”
As the initiator of the ai16z DAO fund, Shaw has had minimal direct interaction with a16z, limited mostly to Eddy Lazzarin, CTO of a16z Crypto. Shaw previously clarified that ai16z has no affiliation with a16z, and even called purchasing such conceptual tokens “stupid.” However, he added in the comments, “I’m one of those stupid ones too,” further confusing users who then mistakenly believed there was a connection—leading to increased purchases of ai16z-related tokens.
In November last year, Eddy Lazzarin, Chief Technology Officer of a16z Crypto, tweeted about ongoing conversations between the venture firm and ai16z DAO. Previously, Shaw had posted on X seeking contact with a16z, to which Lazzarin replied: “Check your DMs.” At the time, ai16z surged nearly 44% within 24 hours, pushing its market cap above $480 million.
Shaw & Baoskee: A Friendly Platform-Project Relationship
As a “de-VC investment platform,” daos.fun’s standout success story is ai16z—a community-owned fund. Consequently, the relationship between Shaw and baoskee, founder of daos.fun, is notably positive.
Baoskee previously responded directly to concerns regarding “ai16z token permissions,” openly supporting both ai16z and Shaw: “The ai16z token is indeed mintable, and minting rights will be controlled by DAO token holders (with veto protections)... We will conduct thorough audits.”
In many ways, their fates are intertwined—two sides of the same coin.
Shaw & Lucid: Co-founders of ai16z
Lucid, the other core partner in ai16z DAO, serves as Shaw’s right-hand man, co-founding ai16z and independently launching BeffAI, an AI Agent project on the Base ecosystem.
Previously, when Shaw sought developers interested in Eliza Runescape plugins and agent development, Lucid was the designated point of contact.
Shaw & Skely: Supporter and Founder of ai Pool
Skely, the founder of ai Pool (METAV)—an AI Agent project that raised over 30,000 SOL within hours—is someone Shaw holds up as a model developer.
When Skely’s X account was maliciously reported and suspended, Shaw promptly retweeted community messages in support. He later posted that the aiPool token had launched and that Skely was working to restore his X account, expressing unwavering verbal support.
Shaw & KOTO 9 X: One-Sided Admiration
KOTOX 9, issuer of the AI Meme coin KOTO, was initially suspected to be the target of Shaw’s earlier criticism (which actually referred to Kye of swarms). Shaw quickly clarified: “Not him. KOTO 9 X is a great developer.” His words carried clear admiration.
Shaw & Dan Romero: Collaborators in Farcaster Ecosystem Development
In December last year, Shaw stated: “Farcaster is the future of programmable apps. Eliza has already integrated Farcaster.” He personally donated $420 worth of degenai tokens to every developer who embedded an AI Agent into the Eliza framework on Farcaster.
This gesture received strong support from Dan Romero, co-founder of the Farcaster ecosystem, who replied “LFG” in the comments.
In this sense, they share a cooperative partnership.
Beyond this, Shaw has actively promoted close collaborations between ai16z, Eliza, decentralized compute network Aethir, decentralized AI operating system 0G, and leading DEX platform Orca.
Other Developers at Smolworld: Shaw’s Teammates
Last year, when asked in surprise whether he had stopped working on Smolworld and shifted focus entirely to Eliza and ai16z, Shaw replied: “Still managing the team, but day-to-day development is now led by lordasado, Koshi, and Alextitonis.”
Conclusion: AI Agents Are Boundaryless, But Developers Aren’t
As the old saying goes: “Science knows no borders, but scientists have nationalities.” Similarly, project accounts built on the X platform, smart contracts deployed on-chain, and the corresponding AI Agents transcend boundaries—but the countless developers behind them often operate within very real personal and professional boundaries, complete with rivalries and emotional entanglements.
Despite the fact that crypto-native AI Agents still have significant room to grow compared to mainstream products, these developers continue pushing forward—each in their own way—to advance projects, products, and the entire sector. As swarms developer Kye put it: “Conflict is a lose-lose zero-sum game; only collaboration creates net positive outcomes.”
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