AI Labs Will Trap You or Replace You - Dillon Rolnick, Nous Research

Dillon Rolnick, CEO of Nous Research, argues that as AI models commoditize, the labs that spent trillions building them have two ways to earn it back: lock businesses into their platforms and raise prices, or point their own systems at lucrative industries like finance and compete directly. He makes the case that the moats of proprietary software are gone, that agents are closer to operating systems than chatbots, and that companies should build on open foundations they own and control, like Hermes Agent, so they can swap models and inherit new capabilities instead of rebuilding them. Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:32 The models are commoditizing 1:52 How labs plan to earn back trillions 2:48 Why businesses are the real target 4:28 The labs are coming for finance 5:44 Don't build on quicksand 6:48 Why Nous Research exists 7:56 Software no longer has a moat 9:25 Distillation and the fight over open models 11:06 Agents are operating systems 12:17 Build on foundations you own 13:49 Hermes Agent and the new moats Dillon Rolnick https://nousresearch.com Join us in SF for the second annual AIE CODE summit: https://aie.codes our last flagship summit of 2026. Applications live now!