Three advertisement signs at bus stops on Van Ness Avenue pose a significant question: What are your thoughts on San Francisco?
It's a smart initiative, managed by Outset, an AI research platform based in San Francisco that refers to itself as providing "behavioral intelligence and emotional analysis to close the gap between what consumers say and what they actually do at an unmatched speed and scale." It's a form of market research.
What do individuals truly feel about San Francisco as they travel through the city on a bus? Outset AI provides some insights from people who claim to be local residents.
At the bus stop on Sacramento Street: "SF is merely a tech campus with Victorian homes."
At Union Street: "SF is where your Uber driver might try to sell you on their app concept."
A bit further along: "There are more running clubs here than nightclubs."
All these are intriguing remarks. I frequently come across them during my journeys throughout San Francisco. However, they raise a broader issue: Will the surge in artificial intelligence transform San Francisco? Or will San Francisco influence the technology professionals shaping this rapidly growing new era?
You can observe it all along Van Ness Avenue, where Muni's 49-line buses are consistently full throughout the day: individuals commuting to their jobs, returning home, or traveling around the city, including elderly people, young people, dogs, and students on a school outing. The ride is crowded, shaky, and simple in design. Approximately half of the buses are adorned with AI advertisements, some entirely wrapped in messages. I was on a large bus covered in red and black: one side read "Firecrawl," while the other said "Web Data for AI." The advertisements blocked the view through the bus windows, making it difficult for passengers to see outside.
After exiting the bus, passengers noticed additional advertisements: "Are your APIs prepared for AI agents?" and other technologically focused messages. Observing the crowd of passengers boarding and alighting, it's hard not to question: Are these bus riders the type of low-tech workers who might soon be replaced by artificial intelligence?
I was considering the sights visible from the bus window along Van Ness Avenue. There are no Victorian homes, but the California Street cable car stops nearby, and at Sacramento Street stands the impressive stone Old First Presbyterian Church. Established in 1849 during another period of growth, it was destroyed in the major 1906 earthquake and later reconstructed on Van Ness in 1909.
Just beyond the hill, a block from the street, stands the renowned Haas-Lilienthal House, the city's most impressive Victorian residence.
The Outset AI ad at the bus stop on Union Street references an Uber driver presenting an app concept as if it were innovative. However, fresh ideas and new ventures are commonplace in San Francisco. Didn't Joseph Strauss, the engineer and promoter, discuss his vision for a bridge spanning the Golden Gate Strait years ago? Didn't Jack Dorsey and his colleagues create a messaging platform in San Francisco known as Twitter just two decades back?
Therefore, San Francisco is known for introducing something innovative: television, the martini, green goddess dressing, and fortune cookies.
However, there is a particular sense of discomfort surrounding artificial intelligence. Not long ago, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced booing when he expressed support for AI during a graduation speech at the University of Arizona. This is not an isolated incident. AI has become so significant and influential that people often draw comparisons to the Industrial Revolution.
This leads us to San Francisco, a city known for embracing the new and honoring the past. Is it possible to have a high-tech center in a Queen Anne-style home? Can a city that developed a unique, eccentric character, where unconventional individuals were celebrated, also accommodate more serious tech professionals?
It's simple to notice transformation—through the advertisements for artificial intelligence, the shocking news reports about billionaires fighting in court, the initial San Francisco boxing event featuring two robots, and the groups of self-driving vehicles roaming the roads.
It's a new era, that's for sure. The cycle of despair is gone, and the city has returned. Just take a look at the traffic.
However, similar to many other residents of San Francisco, I feel that something is absent from the city, something in the atmosphere. It doesn't bring as much joy as it once did. The city is cleaner than it was a few years back; it's improved in other ways as well. There are fewer tents and fewer people struggling on the streets.
But there was a certain San Francisco vibe to the place not too long ago. It's still the same city, yet it feels different. I miss some of those other San Franciscans: I noticed the street preachers at Powell and Market, the sidewalk flower vendors, the man who would sit on the city's main street every day with a large sign reading, "NO SEX." I enjoyed the man who played a Chinese violin in the subway. I haven't seen him in a while.
While I was working in the downtown area, I saw a street performer almost every day, typically near the Old Mint on Fifth Street. He would always greet me; I occasionally gave him some money. I never learned his name. One day, he was no longer there, as if he had become a part of the city that we all recalled.
However, Monday is Memorial Day, marking the beginning of the extended, cool San Francisco summer that continues until Labor Day. Perhaps AI will discover a method to make summer last throughout the entire year.
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