In a ballroom at the Palace Hotel packed with hundreds of investors, engineers and business leaders, San Francisco Mayor London Breed confidently proclaimed the city to be the “AI capital of the world,” she said. Told.
Breed concluded the one-day AI Forward conference by touting how the city’s rich investors and local universities are creating fertile ground for artificial intelligence. Hosted by Goldman Sachs and SV Angel, the conference was attended by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and OpenAI president Greg Brockman.
In his remarks, Breed said some big ideas, such as a partial redevelopment of the Westfield San Francisco Center, a downtown mall that Nordstrom recently announced it was pulling out of, and the addition of a soccer field and a soccer field, are some of the big ideas that the city will have. was marketed as a center of cutting-edge technology. An open space in the middle of the Moscone Center.
“Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to focus on creating this amazing, innovative thing that everyone is talking about,” Breed told the crowd.
“We have to start thinking more broadly than just what is possible in a limited space,” Breed said in an interview after the event. He added that the city would like to find a more formal way to work with AI companies and leverage their technology.
“We have to make it easier to work together, easier to change policies, easier to embrace new technologies and new things that help the city run better than ever,” Breed said.
From a policy perspective, Breed said he supports “appropriate regulation” of AI, and cities should focus on thinking about how to help people transition when new technologies threaten their jobs. said.
But in an onstage interview with SV Angel’s managing partner Ron Conway, OpenAI’s Brockman shared an anecdote highlighting the challenges that the San Francisco-based AI company might face in the future. rice field.
Brockman said he recently tried to recruit candidates for positions at OpenAI. According to Brockman, the candidate responded: I don’t like missions. ”
At first, Brockman was defending the company’s ambition to ensure that the technology “benefits all mankind.” But then I realized that the person wasn’t talking about the company’s mission, but about the region where OpenAI is headquartered.
“Look, I think SF is by far the best place to start an AI company, but it could be better,” Brockman said. “I think there are many reasons why San Francisco is succeeding not because of that policy, but because of it.”
It has not yet hindered the growth of some companies in the market. OpenAI is one of the tenants currently looking for additional space, along with other AI startups such as Adapt-AI and Humane AI, according to real estate insiders.
Brockman said the city’s aggressive choice of “pro-business” would send a positive signal to technology companies.
“People talk a lot about cleaning the streets. But the question is, ‘What is the goal? What’s the purpose?” Brockman said. “I think it has the potential to be the best possible place in the world for AI.”
Conway said in an interview that the local AI boom is already driving people back to San Francisco. But it’s up to city officials to try to keep the momentum going, he said.
“If we can create more jobs and prosperity in San Francisco, that’s the recipe,” Conway said. “San Francisco already has the culture, the neighborhood, the environment. We have the bones.”
He said he has spoken with several tech leaders who have returned to the city after staying in cities such as Miami and Austin during the pandemic.
Conway said the city has been hit by a series of “high-profile negative incidents,” but that the violent crime rate remains low compared to other similar cities. Misdemeanor crime, meanwhile, is an issue that city officials must address, Conway said.
Conway specifically highlighted the YIMBY movement as a way to keep residents in cities through affordable housing development. He was a major contributor to the rejected Ballot Measure D in November 2022, which was intended to introduce a more streamlined approval process for certain types of housing.
Conway said YIMBY, California, has a series of new housing bills that the organization is considering implementing in the next state legislature. Ultimately, Conway said he believes the role of the tech sector is to create new jobs, both white-collar and blue-collar, anchored in new innovations.
“So how are we going to fill all these office buildings and how are we going to fill them all?” Mr. Conway said. “Did we think Web 2.0 and the Internet was a big deal? It’s going to be bigger.”
Conway agreed with some tech leaders who positioned 2024 as a milestone year in the city’s political history.
“Voters are more conscious and awake than they’ve ever been, and that’s very good for the city,” Conway said.
