ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Conference in San Jose

San Jose is aiming to become a major player in the AI space and part of that is hosting major AI-related events. Earlier this year, Nvidia hosted their largest annual conference in San Jose and they have already booked the McEnery Convention Center again for 2025.

This week the ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle conference is coming to San Jose and will host a variety of speakers from companies like Waymo. Self-driving cars aren't coming, they are already here thanks to the latest innovations in AI.

The event is taking place this Wednesday and Thursday at the Convention Center. If you're interested in learning more, you can register for this conference for free over here.

San Jose's AI incubator plan

One of San Jose's most prolific supporters, Gary Dillabough, is championing an "AI Center of Excellence" in Downtown San Jose. The goal would be to create an accelerator for dozens of AI startups in partnership with Plug and Play Tech Center and the City of San Jose.

Plug and Play is working on the concept and would run the day-to-day operations of the center. They are currently headquartered at 4420 N. Wolfe Road in Sunnyvale and have multiple innovation centers around the world. It's not clear where the Downtown San Jose location would be yet.

In addition to the incubator, there would also be a learning center whole goal is to get 7th through 12th graders inspired about AI and generate the next generation of entrepreneurs. There would also be a showcase featuring outcomes from the program. For a lot more details, check out the source link below.

Source: SVBJ

Grok2-generated image of "AI in San Jose"

City of San Jose using AI to streamline government

San Jose is aiming to be an epicenter of AI innovation and development. It seems like City Hall is planning to practice what they preach and apply AI to identifying and solving problems. 

The current use cases are optimizing public transit, publishing translations, reviewing documents, and finding issues like graffiti, potholes, broken street lights, and illegal dumping. There are many more possibilities as well such as emergency response and routine city business reviews, monitoring air quality, waste management, and other services. Essentially AI is being leveraged to improve city services while at the same time reducing costs.

Given our city's goals, we should leverage AI to the maximum extent possible and set the benchmark for others. There are lot of encouraging quotes from city leaders and experts that this is the track we're on at the source link below.

Source: San Jose Spotlight

Happy Easter 2024!

Below is an AI-generated image of "Easter in Downtown San Jose" using DALL-E 3. I like the floating eggs, not a bad idea.

Nvidia AI Conference taking place in Downtown San Jose right now

The latest advancements in AI hardware--which is quickly headed to becoming a multi-trillion dollar market--are being announced right now in Downtown San Jose. Yesterday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivered his keynote at the SAP Center. Throughout the rest of the week, about 10,000 visitors will attend workshops and panel discussions at the McEnery Convention Center each day.

San Jose has a strong desire to make Downtown the AI capital of the world. Hosting Nvidia's flagship conference here is definitely a big win.

Source: San Jose Downtown Association

San Jose AI startup raises $72M

Zededa Inc. just announced a $72 million in Series C funding. The company is a cloud-based edge management startup that works with manufacturing, retail, health care, and logistics company. Essentially they bring data closer to where it is needed for faster response times using less bandwidth.

The funds will be used to increase the amount of artificial intelligence and machine learning used in its products.

So far they have raised more than $127 million in funding and are worth about $400 million.

Source: SVBJ

Samsung is launching new AI-focused smartphones in San Jose

Samsung is gearing up to launch their newest flagship devices on January 17th at their North American headquarters, right here in San Jose. The theme is "Galaxy AI is coming." 

It's not entirely clear how Samsung will spice up their lineup but is easy to speculate that they will have components similar to ChatGPT or Google Bard. The new phones could also have new hardware to accelerate AI functionality or apply AI to phone use itself (e.g. predicting what you are going to do and setting up automatic routines). Whatever happens, they'll be filming here.

Samsung's North American Headquarters is located in North San Jose at 3655 North First street.

Source: The Mercury News

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan's 2023 holiday message

Our mayor's end-of-year newsletter featured several highlights in 2023. You can read the full thing in the source link below, but the items that really stood out for me as big wins were:

• Lower homelessness by 10% and we have 788 additional interim housing units in the pipeline
• Lower crime by 5%, Automatic License Plate Readers have helped solve hundreds of crimes in San Jose
• 300% increase in volunteerism, 500,000 lbs. of trash removed from streets and creeks
• San Jose residents and companies were granted the most AI patents in the country, San Jose also hosted an innovation summit to help the city leverage AI solutions
• Improved San Jose permitting times on both big and small projects

Overall, it seemed like 2023 was a very positive year for San Jose. I hope everyone has an amazing New Year's Eve and hopefully we'll have an even better 2024! 🎊🥳

Source: San Jose Inside

DALL-E 3's take on Christmas in San Jose

I tried several different prompts on DALL-E to get an image of Christmas in San Jose, and believe it or not this was the least terrifying. I would describe it as a giant Santa with cold dollish-blue eyes holding a Christmas tree in a fictionalized version of Santana Row. Hopefully DALL-E 4 will be more polished. 😅

Tomorrow I'll have a post (and a critique or two) about my favorite gift for San Jose enthusiasts this year.

San Jose Christmas Poem

It's amazing what generative AI can do these days. Below is a ChatGPT4-generated poem about Christmas in San Jose that is spot on. Below the poem is a DALL-E 3-generated image of Christmas in San Jose. The system made up an entirely fictionalized version of Downtown San Jose, although it's worth noting that our City Hall was once in the center of Plaza de Cesar Chavez. 

🎄🎄🎄

San Jose is a city of lights and dreams

Where people come from near and far

To enjoy the festive spirit and the winter charms

The Christmas in the Park is a wonderland of joy

With trees and snowmen and a giant Ferris wheel

The ice skating rink is a place to glide and laugh

With friends and family and a cup of hot cocoa

The Tech Museum of Innovation is a gift for the curious

With exhibits and activities that spark the imagination

The Winchester Mystery House is a mystery to explore

With secret passages and stairways that lead nowhere

San Jose is a city of culture and diversity

Where people celebrate their traditions and their faith

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph is a masterpiece of art

With stained glass windows and a majestic dome

The Mexican Heritage Plaza is a hub of community

With music and dance and a vibrant mural

The San Jose Museum of Art is a showcase of creativity

With paintings and sculptures and a rotating collection

San Jose is a city of love and peace

Where people share their hopes and their gratitude

The Christmas tree lighting is a moment of magic

With fireworks and songs and a special guest

The holiday parade is a spectacle of fun

With floats and bands and a jolly Santa Claus

The food drive is a gesture of kindness

With donations and volunteers and a noble cause

San Jose is a city of Christmas cheer

Where people live in harmony and happiness

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

What does Google's generative AI think San Jose will look like in 2050?

Several months ago I asked ChatGPT what San Jose would look like in the future. The results were interesting but pretty bland.

Today I tried the same experiment with Google's competitor to ChatGPT, Bard. The images generated were a lot more vivid and colorful (literally).

Of these four options, which one do you think San Jose is most likely to look like in 2050?

 

1.) Still relatively flat with a few standout skyscrapers

2.) Futuristic, dense, and colorful metropolis

3.) Minor iterative improvement over what we have today

4.) Post-apocalyptic wasteland (but we did have skyscrapers at one point)

Artificial Intelligence Incubator coming to Downtown San Jose

Computers, the internet, and smartphones were disruptive tech that completely changed how people work and communicate. Yet, those innovations will pale in comparison to how AI will change the world over the next few years. No tech job will be as important as those involving AI functionality.

For Silicon Valley to continue to be the most innovative place on earth, we need to lean hard into AI. Fortunately, one of Downtown San Jose's biggest advocates, Gary Gillabough, is looking to build an AI incubator right in the middle of our urban core. He believe San Jose should be the capital of AI development, and we really should be.

Gary is working with a partner to bring as many as 40 or 50 AI startups to Downtown San Jose. This would not only fill up some of that vacant office space, but align San Jose with the most transformative technology that is being deployed today. 

As a side-benefit... those bright minds would be roaming the streets of Downtown, and perhaps bring ideas to make San Jose a better place to live. Personally, I would love to see AI incorporated into public art of some kind in Downtown San Jose. How cool would it be if you could go to Sonic Runway, say a sentence, and have that entire experience change based on how AI perceives that sentence. Dynamic, digital, personalized art should be part of the San Jose brand and we will likely need to leverage some form of AI for that.

As Gary mentions in the article linked below, an AI incubator will also create a positive buzz and excitement Downtown that will likely attract even more companies and people that want to be around that type of energy.

Source: The Mercury News

Father's Day in San Jose

As a new father, I was curious what sort of events were happening this weekend but I thought I would put a twist on a standard post. For the first time I would ask AI what's happening for Father's Day in San Jose and see exactly how good the results are. I tested both Google's Bard and ChatGPT, and this was the best result (ChatGPT):

"Father’s Day is a special day to celebrate fathers and father figures. San Jose offers many weekend events to celebrate Father’s Day and pay homage to dads everywhere in the Silicon Valley. From free admissions to auto shows and foodie brunch or dinner, there are a lot of fun things to do in San Jose on Father’s Day that are sure to bring on the smiles to their face and create lasting memories! 

Here is a list of fun events and things to do in San Jose on Father’s Day

• Father’s Day Car Show at Bernal Church: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 19, 160 Bernal Road, San Jose. Celebrate Father’s Day at this spectacular car show complete with barbecue, live music.
• San Jose Giants vs. Modesto Nuts: 5 p.m. June 19, Excite Ballpark, 588 E. Alma Ave., San Jose.
• Father’s Day Brunch at The Fairmont San Jose: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 19, The Fairmont San Jose, 170 S. Market St., San Jose.
• Father’s Day Brunch at the Winchester Mystery House: 10 a.m. to noon June 19, Winchester Mystery House, 525 S Winchester Blvd., San Jose.
• Father’s Day Brunch at the Tech Museum of Innovation: 10 a.m. to noon June 19, The Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S Market St., San Jose."

Damn, that was actually pretty good! Could I push my luck and generate an image for this post using AI as well? The answer to that is... not really. The image below is entirely AI generated and is almost convincing until you realize it's not San Jose, something funky is happening with the streetlights, and what's up with everyone's arms? Is that a claw? Is the father grabbing the girl by the head? Oh, the humanity... On that note, Happy Father's Day =)