Show notes
📌 Copy my personal AI system to save time and build with AI: https://www.behindthecraft.com/🤝 Get my free AI newsletter read by 150K+ professionals: https://creatoreconomy.so/Karan co-founded Nous Research, the company behind Hermes, the #1 personal agent and AI app overall on OpenRouter. I found him incredibly down to earth as we discussed why open-source AI must win, how Hermes gets better the more you use it, and even a live demo of how Hermes can mod your favorite childhood games.Karan and I talked about:(00:00) How Hermes differs from Claude Code and Codex(02:20) Why every AI model now sounds exactly the same(11:16) How to stop AI from saying “you’re absolutely right”(15:16) How Hermes creates skills without bloating its context(16:40) The open vs. closed-source debate on AI safety(23:40) Using one Kanban board for humans and AI agents(26:45) Demo: Rebuilding a childhood Sonic world with Hermes(36:07) How two Discord friends built a self-improving agent(42:40) How Hermes became its own biggest contributorThanks to our sponsors:Riverside: All-in-one AI studio for podcasts and video https://creators.riverside.com/PeterYangLinear: The AI agent platform for modern teams https://linear.app/behind-the-craftWispr Flow: 4x faster than typing with your voice https://ref.wisprflow.ai/peteryang📌 Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/hermes-co-founder-on-building-an-ai-agent-that-improves-itself-karan-malhotraWhere to find Karan:X: https://x.com/karan4dWebsite: https://www.karan4d.com/Hermes Agent: https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agentSubscribe to this channel - more interviews coming soon!