the real reason why SF is 6 months ahead on AI is just physics:
shipping a SOTA model from the bay area to NYC is a logistical nightmare
imagine what it took to bring Opus 4.7 to Europe (we don't have trains here) 😢
People at major AI labs (using internal models) 3-4 months ahead of startup silicon valley engineers
SV founders/eng 3-6 months ahead of NY
NY founders/eng 6-12 months ahead of rest of world
Most people have no idea how fast AI shifting as 1-2 years behind SOTA
"The future is here, just not equally distributed" - Robert Heinlein