Tag: technology

S.F. gov rolling out OpenAI-powered chatbot for 30K workers

SAN FRANCISCO

OpenAI chatbot meets SF City Hall worker

Lee Heidhues 7.14.2025

If nothing else the billionaire Mayor Levi Strauss & Co. scion Daniel Lurie is hip with the technology.

Based on his corporate pedigree it’s no surprise that he’s bringing the power of Artificial Intelligence to San Francisco City Hall. LS &Co. has always been at the forefront of technology in the workplace.

How City employees will make use of AI remains to be seen. It’s a real game changer and will hurtle San Francisco government into the 21st century.

An OpenAI-powered chatbot is a conversational AI that leverages OpenAI’s large language models (LLMs) to generate human-like text responses and engage in natural language interactions. These chatbots are built using OpenAI’s API and can be customized for various applications, including customer service, information retrieval, and more. 

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 7.14.2025

San Francisco’s city government is getting chatbot access as it continues to embrace artificial intelligence, Mayor Daniel Lurie said.

San Francisco city workers are being told to follow guidelines including keeping data secure, fact checking and disclosing AI use. The city is partnering with nonprofit InnovateUS to train staff.

Microsoft 365 Copilot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o chatbot product, will be available starting Monday to nearly 30,000 city employees. Lurie said the city is the largest local government to use generative AI for tasks including writing reports, data analysis and document summaries.

“San Francisco is the global home of AI, and now, we’re putting that innovation to work with Microsoft Copilot Chat — allowing City Hall to better deliver for our residents,” said Lurie in a statement. “As our city and the world embrace AI technology, San Francisco is setting the standard for how local government can responsibly do the same.

The city is the biggest hub for leading AI companies in the world, with headquarters from OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks and Scale AI.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft also has multiple offices in San Francisco and is bringing its Ignite conference to Moscone Center in the fall for the first time. A win for the city as it continues to grapple with lost business travel since the pandemic.

The San Francisco event is booked for the week of Nov. 17, 2025.

Lurie previously worked with 26 business leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to establish a new advocacy group called the Partnership for San Francisco.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/microsoft-ignite-sf-19936631.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL3NmL2FydGljbGUvbWljcm9zb2Z0LWlnbml0ZS1zZi0xOTkzNjYzMS5waHA%3D&time=MTc1MjU1MDAwNzIzOQ%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=MA%3D%3D
A soundtrack cut from the ultimate AI movie Ex Machina

Note: ‘OpenAI chatbot meets SF City Hall worker’ – artwork in Wall Street Journal 6.30.2025

DeepSeek is “AI’s 2025 equal to Russia’s 1957 Sputnik moment” 

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.27.2025

DeepSeek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepSeek topples American AI tech stocks causing a meltdown in the financial markets.

When I was growing up the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite and upended America. Which until that time thought of itself as being a leader in outer space technology.

Today’s toppling of AI stocks is the 2025 version of how America on October 5th, 1957 was impacted forever when it learned the Russians jumped ahead in what was then called the “Space race.”

FIRST SOVIET SATELLITE, 1957.
‘The New York Times’ frontpage, 5 October 1957, announcing the launch of “Sputnik I”, the Soviet Union’s first earth satellite.

Now it’s the Chinese and their Entrepreneurship which is causing an uproar in the political and financial markets.

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liang_Wenfeng has suddenly found himself catapulted to the top of the global multi billion dollar AI news cycle

Liang Wenfeng at right has found himself catapulted to the top of the global multi billion dollar AI news cycle

Excerpted from The New York Times 1.27.2025

DeepSeek is “AI’s Sputnik moment,” Marc Andreessen, a tech venture capitalist, posted on social media on Sunday.

How could a company that few people had heard of have such an effect?

Tech stocks tumbled. Giant companies like Meta and Nvidia faced a barrage of questions about their future. Tech executives took to social media to proclaim their fears.

And it was all because of a little-known Chinese artificial intelligence start-up called DeepSeek.

DeepSeek caused waves all over the world on Monday as one of its accomplishments — that it had created a very powerful A.I. model with far less money than many A.I. experts thought possible — raised a host of questions, including whether U.S. companies were even competitive in A.I. anymore.