In San Francisco, a tightknit group of entrepreneurs and technologists are working on building technology that is already changing how humans live and work around the world: artificial intelligence.
In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT. The San Francisco-based company took everyone by surprise at how advanced its generative artificial intelligence tools were. The ChatGPT release set in motion an intense and frenzied excitement around AI start-ups. Entrepreneurs from around the world immediately flocked to San Francisco to be a part of this AI revolution, forming, seemingly overnight, a new community around AI start-ups
This new tech boom is focused on generative AI, tools which draw on large data sets to create their own content. Generative AI can create things – writing, art, poetry – that we once thought to be uniquely human. The pace of development is unprecedented, surprising even the people working on it. This is a historic technological shift likely as important as the development of personal computing – perhaps even as groundbreaking as the Industrial Revolution.
Behind all of this is a group of humans producing these models and machines.
When I discuss AI with people, most view it as an abstract power that is all hidden on servers. They know it will change their lives, but can’t envision what it is beyond data, bits and code. They overlook the fact there are people behind it. I am working to overcome this by visually documenting the humans building these technologies and the community they’ve created around their work.
San Francisco is the beating heart of this AI revolution. These individuals are staying up all night working on their companies, frantically trying to keep up with new advancements. They’re constantly attending networking events to share their ideas and spending their weekends at hackathons to push artificial intelligence further. Most of them are very young, but being handed millions in investment dollars to launch their companies. They are immersed in this community around the clock, thus creating an echo chamber of their ideas.
How we adapt to AI in our daily lives is arguably one of the biggest questions of the 21st century. This hits right at the heart of what it means to be human. Right now, in San Francisco, this group is hard at work building the technology that will likely change the trajectory of humanity around the world, for better, or worse.
A group of entrepreneurs and technologists in San Francisco has formed a tight-knit community while building artificial intelligence.
