![\"\"](\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/728deb77cb140ba8a61531a8b8693d8a?s=80&d=mm&r=g\")
by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong> NOVEMBER 15, 2023 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/missionloca.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-2.jpg\")
Artificial intelligence enthusiasts \u2014 mostly young startup founders \u2014 have arrived in San Francisco over the past year, reveling in the abundance of money, information, and connections<\/a>. And, they find, work \u2014 lots of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSan Francisco can feel overwhelming at times,\u201d said Briar Smith, 27. Since moving back to San Francisco from Waterloo, Canada, in February, he has been a founding engineer at three AI startups. \u201cYou\u2019re in a bit of a pressure cooker in the sense that everyone is working so much that you feel like when you\u2019re relaxing, you\u2019re not really fully relaxing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is kind of what the culture perpetuates \u2026 it\u2019s all about moving fast and having momentum,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have competitors, and you have investors you\u2019re trying to impress and you\u2019re trying to hit certain targets so that you can raise your next round. And if you don\u2019t hit targets, it\u2019s going to be harder to raise your next round.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When under the pressure of deadlines, Smith worked 60 hours a week for months \u2014 a pace he knows puts him behind others, because he watches their tweets. \u201cA lot of my friends that are founders, they work 24\/7 and I have to set boundaries,\u201d said Smith, who tries to escape to hike in Sonoma or Yosemite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though, he said, \u201cI think the best founders actually have a good work life balance \u2026 because it keeps them in touch with the rest of themselves and the world, because founding is like a self-growth opportunity in many areas.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscribe to our daily newsletter<\/strong> and have the latest stories from Mission Local delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith is far from the only AI enthusiast who works hard but doesn\u2019t get to play hard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On a grant from the Singaporean government, SzeYing Teo, 33, visited San Francisco to test a business model to connect Singapore tech talent to U.S. startups. During her two-month stay in town, she moved from the Financial District to a hacker house in Hayes Valley, attended some five AI social events every week and even organized some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dos Bah\u00e1, 29, a serial entrepreneur who moved here in August from Asia and a brief stint in New York City, works 60 to 70 hours per week. Two thirds of his time is spent reading academic papers and building his interactive storytelling AI platform, GOAT.AI. The rest is spent meeting investors, interviewing new talent and networking \u2014 including winning second place<\/a> in a popular hackathon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He indulges in his company\u2019s two small hacker houses in SoMa and another between the Mission and Dogpatch, which he rented at a good price. Consequently, Bah\u00e1\u2019s time with his wife and two-year-old daughter is limited. He feels it will all be worth it, even if the AI boom fizzles in the coming years. \u201cWorst case,\u201d he says, \u201cwe\u2019ll be able to create another company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeff Wang, a founder in his 40s who moved to San Francisco in June, now spends most of his time in a WeWork near Chinatown perfecting his AI learning system, ClassGaga. He makes no apologies, saying, he \u201ccame here really for work.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wang sent Mission Local a picture he took when he first moved here of the Mercury Caf\u00e9 in Hayes Valley: Everyone in the photo was focused on their laptops. \u201cIt was very representative of the booming industry here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jake McLain, 25, models himself on Steve Jobs, as does Wang. McLain, who moved here in June, just submitted the official filing for his AI art startup, Musai, earlier in October and spends almost all of his time coding. For him, the way to ride with the AI boom is all about striking a balance \u2014 but getting the balance right isn\u2019t easy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as many of the founders who have their ideas figured out, McLain has stopped going to social events \u2014 he doesn\u2019t have time. \u201cIt\u2019s a weird balance between that kind of spontaneous networking and actually developing. You can\u2019t do both at the same time,\u201d he said. He uses the AI events as a tool to measure progress, networking when he needs feedback from other founders and engineers on what he\u2019s built. <\/p>\n\n\n\n McLain cautions about getting too caught up in the technology, which, he says, makes engineers \u201cstart building things just for technology\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou hear the phrase \u2018technology in search of a problem.\u2019 And I think that\u2019s definitely happening a lot in AI,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well-established companies like Midjourney and OpenAI made great strides in technological development \u2014 but without existing applications; they have attempted to wrap a user interface layer on top of their research models and deliver that to consumers. Nascent companies tend to follow that path, too, scrambling to find real-world use-cases for the AI models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This has been the consensus among the newcomers and people talk about it outright when calling themselves \u201copportunists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a new era, a new stage, a new way of getting rich,\u201d said Tong Yu, founder of AI companionship app DirtyCat, who was delighted to find OpenAI CEO Sam Altman lives in her neighborhood. \u201cPeople can get rich really quickly and in chaos. We\u2019re in chaos right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong> OCTOBER 30, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong> OCTOBER 4, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong> NOVEMBER 6, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n yujie@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n REPORTER. Yujie Zhou is our newest reporter and came on as an intern after graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a full-time staff reporter as part of the Report for America program that helps put young journalists in newsrooms. Before falling in love with the Mission, Yujie covered New York City, studied politics through the \u201cstreet clashes\u201d in Hong Kong, and earned a wine-tasting certificate in two days. She\u2019s proud to be a bilingual journalist. Follow her on Twitter @Yujie_ZZ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One wonders if the frenzy is too technology driven by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU NOVEMBER 15, 2023 (MissionLocal.org) Artificial intelligence enthusiasts \u2014 mostly young startup founders \u2014 have arrived in San Francisco over the past year, reveling in the abundance of money, information, and connections. And, they find, work \u2014 lots of it. \u201cSan… Continue reading ![\"Two](\"https:\/\/missionloca.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2-2-930x523.jpg\")
MORE AI COVERAGE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"AI](\"https:\/\/missionloca.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/featured-1200x900.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAI founders head west to SF, and find a city awash in connections, ideas and funding<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAI map: Where the young and restless driving the AI boom hang out<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Day](\"https:\/\/missionloca.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/featured-1-800x600.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDay 2: 311 chatbot wins AI for good hackathon<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n