Article · 2026-06-17 · 6 moments

State of the blog, mid-2026

About 3 years since I started writing weekly. ✦ AI generated

Claim

All Interconnects comments will be paywalled because opening comments on popular posts floods them with low-quality, often AI-generated content that damages the blog's highly selective audience.

Lambert announces that all Interconnects comments will now be paywalled, citing floods of low-quality, often AI-generated replies whenever a popular post has open comments.

transcript

Nathan Lambert: All comments will be paywalled. Whenever I have a popular post without paywalled comments I get a flood of low-quality posts — many of which are obviously AI generated. This is a detriment of the highly selective audience we’ve built.

Claim◆

Despite Interconnects' bank account hovering near $0 and going full-time being financially risky, I concluded I'll have more impact in AI by building institutions than by focusing on commentary.

Lambert admits Interconnects LLC's finances have hovered near zero for months, and explains that after reflection he chose institution-building over going all-in on commentary because it offers more impact.

transcript

Nathan Lambert: In fact the Interconnects bank account has hovered around $0 for months (I’m personally fine having another job). This made me hesitate in going all-in on it, but in reflections I concluded that I would have more impact in AI by building these systems than focusing on commentary.

gives example · 1

Claim

I considered turning Interconnects into a full-time, top-priority operation like SemiAnalysis or Stratechery, but rejected that path because building an open-science ecosystem requires more than commentary and analysis.

Lambert reveals he weighed going full-time on Interconnects in the style of SemiAnalysis or Stratechery, but decided it wouldn't achieve his real goal of building an open-science movement in AI.

transcript

Nathan Lambert: Over the past few months, I considered taking Interconnects in more of a direction like SemiAnalysis or Stratechery, where it is my full-time gig and number one priority, but it didn’t seem like the right fit for what I am trying to achieve. I’m trying to build an open ecosystem and a movement for true open-science at the frontier of AI.

Claim

I'll paywall slightly more articles going forward because revenue is the only metric I can rely on to measure the blog's real influence, unlike vanity metrics like views and likes.

Lambert says he'll paywall more articles because he considers revenue the only trustworthy signal of the blog's influence, dismissing views and likes as vanity metrics.

transcript

Nathan Lambert: I want to keep experimenting with what is the right way to do this, but the only metric I can rely on for increasing influence of the blog is revenue. Views, likes, etc. are all vanity metrics which don’t reliably measure this type of content.

supports · 1

Claim◆

Interconnects is deliberately raw and technical because it functions as the tip of the spear of my AI missions, mapping my real-time thinking rather than presenting polished commentary.

Nathan Lambert explains that Interconnects' raw, sometimes-too-technical style is intentional, meant to let readers into his real-time thinking at the AI frontier rather than deliver polished commentary.

transcript

Nathan Lambert: Interconnects is the tip of the spear of all of my missions in AI. It is meant to start a conversation and to let the reader into the mind of someone at the frontier. This insight makes the writing sometimes a bit raw, sometimes a bit too technical, but it is the map of how I progress my thinking in the ever changing world.

Fact

My new advising agreements with Arcee AI and Mercor support my open-science mission rather than compromising my editorial independence, since I'd quit if they ever constrained what I write.

Lambert discloses new advising agreements with Arcee AI and Mercor, framing them as a way to learn how frontier labs approach post-training rather than a conflict that undermines his independence.

transcript

Nathan Lambert: The two companies I’m advising, whose leadership I’ve become friends with, are Arcee AI and Mercor. Arcee should be fairly obvious as the no-nonsense player building open-weight models. Mercor will make more sense over time, but they’re a close ally to a lot of my goals in transparent evaluations, open post-training, and neutrality with respect to the leading labs.

Highlight slides

Interconnects: The Tip of the Spear✦ from: Interconnects is deliberately raw and technical because it functions as the tip of the spear of my AI missions, mapping my real-time thinking rather than presenting polished commentary.Betting on Institutions Over Commentary✦ from: Despite Interconnects' bank account hovering near $0 and going full-time being financially risky, I concluded I'll have more impact in AI by building institutions than by focusing on commentary.Why the Raw Style Is Intentional✦ from: Interconnects is deliberately raw and technical because it functions as the tip of the spear of my AI missions, mapping my real-time thinking rather than presenting polished commentary.Why He's Fine With the Risk✦ from: Despite Interconnects' bank account hovering near $0 and going full-time being financially risky, I concluded I'll have more impact in AI by building institutions than by focusing on commentary.

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