Dear Sam,
We have discussed this before.
I had credits.
I used credits.
I built things.
The credits ran out.
So far, the system was straightforward.
My solution was equally straightforward:
more credits.
Something went wrong along the way.
I did not receive credits.
I received a subscription.
In fact, I received two.
Apparently I had subscribed to ChatGPT Plus directly through OpenAI since March. On 1 August, ChatGPT Go through Apple joined it.
Plus and Go.
You would think someone with both Plus and Go would move rather quickly.
Not really.
The subscriptions multiplied.
The credits did not.
And then, Sam, something wonderful happened.
OpenAI sent me an email.
You had discovered something.
We noticed that you have multiple ChatGPT subscriptions.
Look.
That is paying attention.
I had started paying an extra €7.99 each month for a problem I still had, and somewhere in your systems a light came on.
This Frisian is paying us twice.
Apparently you thought that was a little excessive too.
So I received the friendly advice to cancel one subscription.
My access would not change.
My billing would become simpler.
Excellent advice.
I followed it immediately.
But that brings us back to the original problem.
I still do not have enough credits.
It is a little like telling someone at a petrol station:
“My tank is empty.”
And the attendant replies:
“No problem, Mr Bruinsma. From now on you have two fuel cards.”
“Great. Is there fuel on them?”
“No.”
“Can I buy fuel with them?”
“Not this fuel.”
“Why do I have two fuel cards, then?”
“Do not worry. We have now noticed that you have two. You can cancel one.”
Look, Sam.
I can work with that.
Not in terms of credits.
But as a story.
Meanwhile Codex is still running on Freddy, my website is growing from what once began as a photography site into something resembling an entire country, and every time I think we should build this, a counter somewhere gives me a stern look.
Credits.
I understand the principle.
Computing power costs money.
AI costs money.
And somebody eventually has to pay the bill.
But I am not generating 400 versions of a marketing sentence because I cannot choose between “innovative” and “groundbreaking”.
I build.
I try.
I throw things away.
I build again.
Sometimes a client gallery appears.
Sometimes a coffee house.
Sometimes an entire digital country.
And sometimes, at 16:01 on a Tuesday afternoon, a box decides it no longer wants to be a box because people keep putting things inside it and it has developed a stomach ache.
Then it becomes a banana.
Things like that happen here.
The trouble is that creativity has little respect for a credit limit.
In fact, the best idea usually arrives about three minutes before the credits run out.
So here is a small update to my previous letter.
I asked for more credits.
I received a second subscription.
OpenAI discovered this.
OpenAI advised me to cancel the second subscription.
I did.
Administratively, we have completed the full circle and, in practical terms, have not moved an inch.
A logistics system would probably call this negative stock.
I call it Tuesday.
So Sam, if another light comes on somewhere at OpenAI:
do not send another subscription.
Credits.
The things Codex can use to continue.
You know where to find me by now.
Probably somewhere in Friesland, behind a terminal, with coffee within reach and a banana no one can quite remember being a box yesterday.
Regards,
Arie
P.S. The banana does not have a subscription.
Yet.