In late May, 300 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, journalists and self-proclaimed thought leaders flocked. At Shack 15, a stylish social club on the second floor of San Francisco’s Ferry Building, most people were buzzing about the next gold rush. Dubbed the “Generative AI Meeting of the Minds,” the gathering was unthinkable during the pandemic, and this year when car break-ins and retail store closures were often the city’s main concerns. would have been inconceivable at first. The evening had the feel of a religious revival. “Something is happening, something is cracking,” said the evening’s host and futurist. Peter Ryden spoke at the beginning of many bright speeches. Just when everyone was saying, ‘The end of San Francisco, everybody’s leaving the Bay Area, no one wants to live in California, we’re stuck in a doom loop, this very thing. It’s time to find out that the place is about to explode, ‘open with reinvention,’ said Leiden, applauding. The speech, and the event as a whole, captured the “Silicon Valley is back” sentiment that’s sweeping the tech world these days.
Just a few months ago, headlines were dominated by job cuts, plummeting stock prices and startup valuations, and the FTX and Silicon Valley Bank scandals. It felt as though the entire industry was poised for a long-term exit after years of parody and tech rush. Artificial intelligence is the hot topic in the city right now. Chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, image creation tools Dall-E and Midjourney. There is hope that technology might bring more Jobsian dents into the universe.
