Marc Andreessen has called himself the “unpaid intern” of the DOGE in a podcast. At the same time, his DAO ai16z has confirmed plans of merging Eliza version two with the main version.

Marc joined the Hoover Institution podcast to explain the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as a federal advisory body that would operationalize any disarray buried within government bureaucracy.

Established by Donald Trump, it is an advisory committee tasked to reduce “headcount,” eliminate wasteful spending and roll back obsolete or unnecessary regulations, stated Andreessen. 

He pointed to the sprawling size of the federal government, with estimates of as many as 450 to 500 agencies, many of which have “independent” authority not specifically listed in the Constitution.

The newly formed department would be led by Elon Musk, who has been a strong supporter of Dogecoin (DOGE) and Vivek Ramaswamy, an American entrepreneur.

Interestingly, the acronym “DOGE” playfully references Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency Elon Musk has openly supported since 2020. Initially created as a joke, Dogecoin’s value has often spiked in response to Musk’s statements and endorsements.

Andreessen further suggests that DOGE intends to maintain constitutional compliance by curbing regulatory overreach. He also discusses issues like the underused federal office spaces, where just 25% of Washington, D.C. office space gets populated, with some officials working “two days every two months.”

DOGE intends to reveal such inefficiencies in the federal government and redirect taxpayer money to where it is truly needed— all with a heavy reliance on presidential and Congressional buy-in to actually produce results. 

Eliza version 2 ready for launch

Andreessen’s role, however, extends beyond policy. His project, ai16z (AI16Z), made in collaboration with Eliza Labs, is at the forefront of gaming AI. On Jan. 16, Shaw- founder of Eliza Labs and a partner of ai16z project- talked about progress on Eliza version 2, which will be the new-generation AI agent core. 

The new version currently sits in a private repository, but after some testing in the community, The latest version should move to the main repository after about two months. For version 1, most of the effort was Shaw’s, whereas version 2 is much more collaborative among internal and external teams, says Shaw.

This is in keeping with the increasing use of AI in decentralized ecosystems and even wider applications, showcasing Andreessen’s multifaceted contributions toward AI and technology. 

As of this writing on Jan. 16, the AI crypto trades at $1.48 with a market of over $47.5 billion, as per CoinGecko. AI16Z has been up by +15.37% in the last 24 hours, highlighting the role of AI and crypto’s growing confidence.