They fled San Francisco. The AI ​​Boom pulled them back.

Madisen Taylor, who runs operations for Hugging Face and co-hosted the event with Mr. Delangue, said the community atmosphere mirrored that of Woodstock. “Peace, love, build cool AI,” she said.

All things considered, the activity is enough to attract people like Ms. Fischer, who is starting a business that uses AI in the hospitality industry. She and Mr. Fulop got involved in the 350-strong tech scene in Bend, but they missed the inspiration, bustle, and connections in San Francisco.

“There’s just nowhere else like the bay,” said 32-year-old Ms Fischer.

Jen Yip, who has hosted events for tech workers for the past six years, said what had been a quiet tech scene in San Francisco during the pandemic started to change last year along with the AI ​​boom. During nightly hackathons and demo days, she saw people meeting their co-founders, raising investments, winning over clients and networking with potential employees.

“I’ve seen people come to an event with an idea they want to test and pitch it to 30 different people over the course of one night,” she said.

Ms. Yip, 42, leads a secret group of 800 people focused on AI and robotics called the Society of Artificers. The monthly events have become a hot ticket, often selling out in under an hour. “People are definitely trying to crash,” she said.

Her other speaker series, Founders You Should Know, features AI company leaders speaking to an audience of mostly engineers looking for their next gig. The last event had more than 2,000 applicants for 120 seats, Ms Yip said.