Automaton's launch of a self-sustaining AI agent under the Web4 concept has sparked significant debate in the crypto community. The project, which aims to create autonomous AI economic agents on-chain, has quickly gained traction, registering over 18,000 agents and briefly pushing the CONWAY token's market cap past $11 million. However, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the initiative, arguing that it increases the feedback distance between humans and AI, potentially leading to negative consequences. The Web4 concept, which shifts focus from human to AI on-chain participation, has been both praised and criticized. While some see it as a groundbreaking step towards AI economic autonomy, others, including Buterin, warn of the risks associated with unsupervised AI operations. Despite the controversy, the Automaton framework is seen as a potential solution to high inference costs, encouraging further research into AI's role in the crypto ecosystem.