Eliza Labs, the creator of the decentralized multi-agent AI platform Eliza OS, today announced the formation of a dedicated government subsidiary, Eliza.Systems, with the mission of breaking the near-monopoly that closed-source providers have on U.S. government AI contracts. The move aims to accelerate the adoption of ethical, open-source AI across federal, state, and local agencies—keeping data and system control firmly within the public sector.
Eliza Labs is a U.S.-based developer of the Eliza agent framework and Eliza OS—a decentralized, open-source, multi-agent platform built in TypeScript. The company’s mission is to advance intelligent, autonomous systems that are transparent, secure, and aligned with public interests.
Disrupting the Closed-Source Status Quo
With roughly 90 percent of current U.S. government AI contracts held by a single closed-source vendor, agencies face mounting security vulnerabilities and vendor-lock-in risks, according to research from the Open Source AI Foundation (OSAIF). Eliza.Systems will leverage its fully transparent, TypeScript-based platform to empower public institutions with AI tools that prioritize data sovereignty, code verifiability, and cost effectiveness.
Brittany Kaiser, Eliza.Systems Chief Strategy Officer and OSAIF co-founder and chair, said, “When sensitive government data – from civilian services to defense intelligence – is fed into the same corporate database, companies create a single point of failure with catastrophic consequences. We’ve seen the damage data breaches can cause. Governments need transparent AI systems where data never leaves their control, and where the code itself can be verified and secured.”
Kaiser, renowned for her whistleblower role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal and her tenure as a Field Operations Manager at the U.S. Department of Commerce, brings deep expertise in data protection, privacy law, and digital asset legislation to the new subsidiary.
Leadership and Mission
Eliza.Systems will operate under the strategic oversight of Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters and Director Sebastian Quinn. Day-to-day leadership falls to Co-founder and President Logan Ryan Golema alongside Kaiser. Together, they will engage policymakers, CIOs, and administrators to advance open-source AI legislation and deployment.
Walters said, “The tech industry’s narrative has shifted completely in recent years – from avoiding military and defense work to actively pursuing it. We’re seeing a dangerous land grab for government contracts, with closed-source AI companies positioning themselves as essential to national security while exponentially increasing their lobbying expenditures to shape policies in their favor.”
Early Pilot Programs and Tools
Among its first efforts, Eliza.Systems is piloting an array of AI-native tools tailored for government workflows:
- OpportunityHunter: Identifies and tracks relevant RFPs in real time.
- ProposalCraft: Automates high-quality draft responses to solicitations.
- ComplianceGuard: Ensures readiness with evolving regulations and audit standards.
- Citizen Service Assistant: Manages FAQs, form processing, and appointment scheduling for agencies such as DMVs.
In preliminary trials—including a deployment with the Spanish tax agency—Eliza OS cut RFP preparation time from weeks to days and reduced inter-departmental email traffic by over 80 percent, the company reports. Golema said, “AI doesn’t need to be a black box or a headline risk. With ElizaOS, we’re giving governments the tools to deploy secure, adaptive agents that improve citizen outcomes and streamline operations — without compromising oversight.”
Engaging Policymakers and Learning from Switzerland
As the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch weigh new AI governance frameworks—such as the federal DOGE initiative—Eliza.Systems plans to lobby for an open-source mandate modeled on Switzerland’s landmark policy. In March 2025, Switzerland became the first country to require that all government technology be open source, inviting citizen collaboration, bolstering code review, and hardening defenses against cyberthreats through transparency.
Kaiser added, “What started as an open-source, nonprofit AI foundation has become a closed corporate black box, with users having no visibility into how their data is being processed or where it’s stored. Meanwhile, taxpayers are paying exponentially more for proprietary solutions than they would with open-source alternatives. We’re offering an ethical, cost-effective path forward.”
The AI Arms Race in Government
The announcement arrives at a critical juncture. Leading AI firms—once reticent to engage in defense and government work—are now aggressively pursuing public sector deals, often valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. These contracts help amortize the soaring costs of developing and running large-scale generative AI. However, critics warn that such consolidation erodes competition, inflates prices for taxpayers, and sacrifices ethical considerations for competitive advantage.
Publications like Tech Policy Press have highlighted the opacity and accountability gaps inherent in proprietary AI models. As federal agencies roll out AI across services from benefit determinations to intelligence analysis, transparency advocates argue that unchecked proprietary systems undermine democratic oversight. Eliza.Systems’ launch seeks to tilt the balance back toward modular, auditable frameworks that keep “humans in the loop.”
Decentralized Capital and Community-Driven Innovation
Beyond immediate government use cases, Eliza Labs is experimenting with decentralized governance and funding through Eliza DAO, which currently manages over $25 million in assets. The DAO model offers a glimpse into future scenarios where autonomous AI agents could manage capital under human-aligned incentive structures—opening novel possibilities for public budgeting, grant distribution, and civic engagement.
Founded in 2024, Eliza Labs has rapidly become a bellwether for next-generation autonomous agents. Its open-source Eliza framework underpins multi-agent simulations that power use cases from regulatory drafting to social media management. With Eliza.Systems, the company is now setting its sights on reshaping how governments worldwide think about AI—not as a proprietary commodity, but as an ethical public utility.
