477. The Biggest Misconceptions About AI Agents, Why Defensibility Doesn’t Matter at Seed, and Whether the AI Center of Gravity Is Shifting to China (Aaref Hilaly)

Aaref Hilaly of Bain Capital Ventures joins Nick to discuss The Biggest Misconceptions About AI Agents, Why Defensibility Doesn’t Matter at Seed, and Whether the AI Center of Gravity Is Shifting to China. In this episode we cover: AI Investment Strategy and Market Utility Impact of AI on Jobs and Early Instances of Reasoning Open vs. Closed Source Models and Data Control Scenario Planning and Unique Insights of Backed Companies Infrastructure and Application Investment Focus Future of Vertical Solutions and Infrastructure Investment Guest Links: Twitter/X (guest)  Guest’s LinkedIn Company’s LinkedIn Company’s Website The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Follow us on social. You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter.