Setting AIRS Free

Why I am pausing Substack billing and issuing refunds

I have decided to “indefinitely pause billing” for my Substack, AI Research & Strategy (AIRS). Further, I would like to offer a full refund to all current and past paid subscribers for any amount paid to date, no questions asked. I am truly grateful for your support and encouragement, and I feel you deserve an explanation for this decision. Hence this post.

Indulge me in taking you through my Substack journey and you will see this decision was straightforward. I started AIRS in 2020 when few were writing deeply researched pieces on AI and its far-reaching implications¹. Initially, I wanted this to be an “un-newsletter” — a revolutionary response to formulaic newsletters that were popping up because of Substack². I wrote for joy.

AIRS continued to thrive in its hippie origins. Around that time, I was at the Allen Institute, incubating a company when I was diagnosed with DLBCL, a type of lymphoma that, fortunately, was successfully treated. I typically don't discuss my medical issues publicly, but in this case, it provides useful context. While lymphoma is the lesser of evils, it's still an evil. It drains all the energy out of you, leaving you utterly exhausted. The treatment is more evil than the malady, but a necessary evil.

I had to discontinue my EIR position (I am immensely grateful to the AI2 team for their kindness during that time). As I regained my strength, I began to view Substack writing as a means to generate income from my work and experience the feel-good-ness that comes with it, while being mindful of my new lifestyle. The hippie that I was (still am), I started with a “patron” system instead of recurring paid subscriptions. Despite all the follower counts and folks sharing my articles widely, the patron system did not work — it’s simply not legible.

Eventually, I decided to abandon the patron system and enable paid subscriptions. Over time, the number of paid subscribers grew to a point where it could support my fancy coffee addiction and then some. I am incredibly grateful, not just for the free caffeine, but also for the love and trust that your financial commitment represented. It is truly energizing.

Feeling a sense of obligation to “deliver”, I decided to shake things up at the beginning of 2024. My goal was to consistently provide value by publishing content that my readers would find interesting and relevant, instead of publishing what I liked and when I liked.

I began a series of posts on the NYT copyright case. However, after the first couple of posts of the year, a familiar tiredness and shortness of breath returned. This time, instead of lymphoma, it turned out to be an overactive TNF-factor with unknown origins. Taking care of my health became a full-time job, and writing on Substack to provide “value” for my paid subscribers was the last thing on my mind — a grim reminder that there is a human on the other end of Substack.

After months of receiving subscription money without providing value, I felt it was only right to turn off paid subscriptions and issue refunds. If you are a current paid subscriber, I will be processing your refund shortly. Unfortunately, Substack does not provide a straightforward way to issue refunds to past paid subscribers. So, if you are a past paid subscriber, please reach out to me, and I will figure out how to reimburse you. I am grateful to all of you, whether you are a paid or regular subscriber.

I am healthy-ish now. I am still tinking, tinkering, and doing things that give me joy, including writing. I will be doing that occasionally on here, or you can catch my stream of consciousness on Twitter.

1. Things have improved since. Nathan Lambert’s Interconnects, Sebastian Ruder’s newsletter (not on Substack) are decent.

2. Jack Clark, with his Import AI, was the only exception from that era, despite being ultra biased towards OpenAI agendas in his otherwise excellent writing. I am particularly proud of the first two AIRS posts provided the much needed debunking surrounding the undeserved hype around GPT-3 that OpenAI was peddling, but we digress.