AI Journalism Blog Interconnects Announces New Strategic Partnerships and Paywall Expansion

The Interconnects, an independent publication focused on frontier AI model analysis, has outlined its strategic direction following the founder's departure from the Allen Institute for AI. The author has identified three primary goals: providing clarity on frontier model evolution, cultivating an open and diverse AI model ecosystem, and building institutions to support these objectives. The blog distinguishes itself through a raw, technical writing style intended as direct insight into the thinking of someone working at the frontier of AI development. The publication has built a dedicated audience of approximately 70,000 subscribers, comprising researchers at AI labs, top-tier investors, policymakers, and aspiring AI professionals. The outlet has cultivated roughly 900 paying subscribers, whose financial support has allowed expansion of operations and quality over the past 18 months. The founder emphasizes that while the Interconnects blog is largely independent, he maintains serious consideration of potential conflicts of interest. The publication's creator recently disclosed two advisory agreements with Arcee AI and Mercor. Arcee is characterized as a no-nonsense player building open-weight models, while Mercor is positioned as aligned with goals around transparent evaluation, open post-training practices, and neutrality relative to leading AI laboratories. The author stated these arrangements do not compromise editorial independence and reserved the right to terminate them if unable to maintain free expression. To achieve sustainability, the founder plans to expand paywalled content, increase in-person community events, restrict blog comments to subscribers only, and maintain active curation against AI-generated spam. The publication currently operates at break-even financially, with funds reinvested into operations and AI services. The author has set a goal of reaching 1,000 paying subscribers by end of summer, which would establish a financial foundation supporting potential full-time transition to the blog within several years.