Copied for the benefit of the OpenPhil GCR Capacity Building team, but open for others too

EAIF App

Sent January 7, 2025

Short description

100-200 person coworking & events space in SF

Summary

We're starting up a new coworking & events space, to bring together folks in EA, AI safety, tech startups, and researchers, directly in San Francisco.

Why SF? We think Berkeley venues like Constellation, FAR Labs, and Lighthaven are fantastic for bringing people together and cultivating a community; however, San Francisco is where the cutting edge of AI development actually happens. It's where top labs like Anthropic and OpenAI are headquartered, as well as the tech startup and venture capital scenes. Many EAs (including yours truly) also call SF our home. A physical venue here would foster top-tier work, new opportunites, and deep collaboration.

Notes from a talk at minifest: https://akrolsmir.notion.site/A-space-of-our-own-in-SF-minifest-160a6e41f23e817196eef69ac4211803

Project goals

We're now negotiating terms on a 1-year lease with the owners of the building at 1680 Mission Street: 20k square feet across 2 floors, suitable for 100-200 folks. In 2024, this space was used by Solaris AI as a coworking space for AI startups and builders; they furnished the space and ran it at a profit, but decided it was not a venture-scale opportunity, and ended their lease in early Jan 2025. After speaking to their team, we decided that it was a good opportunity to inherit their location for our goals.

Our next steps would involve:

Our vision is to build up a thriving SF scene of EAs and related folks, to guide our community (and the world!) as we navigate the coming days of AI.

Track record