The tech industry in California's San Francisco Bay area has experienced a rollercoaster journey in recent years, with significant expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic, subsequent layoffs due to excessive expectations and overspending, and is now undergoing a process of reinvention.

Even as layoffs batter the tech industry, Bay Area startups have managed to raise roughly a third of all money for artificial intelligence ventures in recent months. The neighborhood of Hayes Valley has led the charge, earning the nickname Cerebral Valley.
"That whole area is growing. We're talking about 50 to 100 events that are going on every month on this topic, and we are in the middle of this AI craze and it kind of feels like 1999, right at the beginning when everyone was talking about the web and e-commerce," said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research.
In Cerebral Valley, a nostalgic trend has re-emerged -- the 'hacker home.' What used to be an archbishop's mansion is now Hacker Fellowship Zero, a place where young techies reside together, living and breathing AI.
The core team of AI graphics startup KREA does nearly everything in the house, from sleeping to working -- and drinking lots of sparkling water, which they say highlights the health-conscious culture of the team.
A co-founder said the start-up plans on taking at least 10 years to build a sustainable business and living with the core team for one year is a starting point to achieve the goal.
"If you are not able to deal with the core team, as in living together like a marriage for one year or something, how do you expect to be with them during the whole 10 years?" said Diego Rodriguez, co-founder and CTO of KREA.
The technology business thrives on knowledge, and that means continuously building connections. Recently, KREA held one of their monthly dinners, filling the house with about 40 AI innovators from other companies.
"People from OpenAI, people from Google, people that used to be at Deepmind, all these AI companies, in a single place, and all talking to each other. So the conversations you have feel almost like cheating. We have so much knowledge of what's happening in the industry. This is what people are going to be talking about in the rest of the world in three to six months," said Rodriguez.
CEO and co-founder Victor Perez demonstrated how their software enables users to input simple descriptions to train AI models that generate high-resolution images. Users have complete control of the pictures, which contain the finest details and textures, down to the fur of a dog.
"For anyone who plans to come here, I would say you need to think about this city as a place to work and a place to grind. Everybody is building something so it's extremely interesting to talk with people, because everybody is into some crazy stuff," said Perez.