# 45 hours in SF for OpenAI DevDay

Last week, I flew to SF for OpenAI's DevDay conference! Had to miss class (so many psets ahh), and the red-eye flight back wasn't fun, but definitely worth it.

I'm a Campus Builder Lead, part of a program OpenAI is piloting at five universities to help student builders get access to resources, credits, and support for their projects.

It was an incredible couple of days. I got to meet some great people, drink some matcha, talk with Sam Altman, and have a few conversations that I'm still thinking about.

### Day 1: OpenAI HQ, building, and Sam Altman

A few other students flew in across the different campuses, and we all came together for a day at OpenAI's offices before DevDay.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/629e8cbea6bfa054579530e7/2d31d311-e32c-427c-9952-f6d2bf65b63b.png align="right")

We started at OpenAI's office in Mission Bay. It was great to get to know everyone in person. We toured the office and got breakfast there. They have a fire smoothie bar, and while waiting in line, I started talking with the guy behind me. Turns out we'd met through a friend from school before, and I was actually just texting him right before, small world!

Then, each of us demoed something we've built with AI. Loved [Ammar's](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ammar-adam?originalSubdomain=ca) project, which lets you get Waze directions in cartoon character voices, and [Toryn's](https://www.linkedin.com/in/torynt/) AI generated PCBs. We then heard from [Cova](https://www.instagram.com/covacut/reels/) about how she uses AI in her workflow to speed up editing, inspiring!

For lunch, I got to spend some time with two MIT alumni working at OpenAI, hearing about their experiences at MIT and what they're up to now. It was really nice getting to ask them questions one-on-one.

In the afternoon, we had a mini hardware hackathon. Each group got a little AI-powered camera that generated images, and we were challenged to do something creative with it.

I had Codex hack the camera to generate GIFs instead of individual images. My team's project was "Tech Bros Throughout the Ages," which transformed a picture of us into a GIF from different historical periods.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/629e8cbea6bfa054579530e7/b269a44f-503b-43b4-9c0c-e73c0a9da3a5.png align="center")

Later that afternoon, Sam Altman came to visit. We had a Q&A with him, and then got to talk more informally. Everyone wanted pictures, and I somehow ended up being the designated photographer for the group. As he was leaving, I got to chat with him briefly.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/629e8cbea6bfa054579530e7/78f6577a-9c0a-4611-a454-82155105cc91.jpg align="center")

Afterward, I headed back to OpenAI's office to meet up with a friend who works there. We walked around for a bit and talked about his experience, how he's been learning on the job, and some advice for getting deeper into AI.

One thing that stuck with me was how much you can learn just by being curious, asking questions, and surrounding yourself with people who know more than you.

I also met with someone building a cybersecurity startup later that evening, before heading back to the hotel to hang out with the other Campus Builders. A few of us stayed up late in the lobby. Pretty fun getting to know everyone!

### Day 2: DevDay!

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/629e8cbea6bfa054579530e7/08e164fa-735d-42cd-b3b6-ac0db72e2c2f.jpg align="center")

The next morning, we walked from Fisherman's Wharf to Fort Mason for DevDay.

This was actually a pretty full-circle moment for me. In 11th grade, I flew to SF for a three-day event with Buildspace, the program that first got me interested in startups. Turns out it was in the exact same buildings at Fort Mason! Walking the same route again three years later was pretty cool. A lot has changed.

We got there, grabbed some breakfast and matcha, and headed into the opening keynote. Lots of cool announcements and demos, was exciting to be in the room for it! Looking forward to trying Dots, the Decisions API, and Ultrafast.

We also got a limited-edition ModRetro Game Boy-style device to hack with Codex! I later programmed mine to connect to Wi-Fi and display live MBTA train arrival times in Boston. Pretty cool!

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/629e8cbea6bfa054579530e7/3cd11b2f-9e0d-49df-99ce-7be68a3f5eeb.jpg align="center")

At one point, I saw a crowd gathered around someone and asked who it was. Turns out it was [Theo](https://www.youtube.com/@t3dotgg), whose tech videos I've followed for a while. And [Casey Neistat](https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat) was right next to him! Got to introduce myself and talk with them for a bit. I've watched their videos for years, so that was pretty cool.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/629e8cbea6bfa054579530e7/10709c96-266a-477a-b7f9-d6c15014272b.png align="center")

I also got to meet some of the people who'd presented during the keynote. Tejal and I ended up having an interesting conversation about AI safety, external evaluations, and how universities might be able to contribute.

Later, I was walking around and saw two OpenAI employees talking. I randomly decided to introduce myself, and it turned out they both worked on cybersecurity.

I ended up talking with one of them for around half an hour about AI security, some of the relevant research I've been doing at MIT CSAIL, and the challenges they're working on at OpenAI. Showed him an interesting [Google research paper](https://arxiv.org/html/2609.04170v1) I've been reading, I actually had it in my backpack.

That was probably one of my favorite conversations of the trip. I've recently gotten more involved in AI security research, and it was really interesting to hear directly from people working on similar problems.

The day ended with a closing panel, and afterward, we took some group pictures, hung out on the grass outside Fort Mason where they had Dippin' Dots (get it, because of the new feature Dots), and said goodbye to the other Campus Builders.

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/629e8cbea6bfa054579530e7/341ba4e1-ea6c-4750-9f46-d638199b6316.jpg align="center")

A group of us headed to a startup event nearby, where I caught up with a few friends and met some other interesting people.

Before heading to the airport, I stopped by the Sable office, a startup I'd been wanting to learn more about. Really enjoyed the conversation and it's a sick office!

Then it was off to the airport for a red-eye back to Boston, with not nearly enough sleep.

### A Few Thoughts

One thing that really stuck with me was just how few people are working full-time on AI safety and security relative to how quickly the field is moving.

I heard an estimate that fewer than 1,000 people worldwide are working full-time on these problems. That's pretty crazy to think about, given how much of an impact AI could have on the world.

I've been getting more involved in AI security research at MIT CSAIL recently, and the conversations I had at DevDay made me even more interested in the space. There's so much interesting work to be done, and I think it's important that more people get involved.

I don't think AI safety and innovation need to be at odds. Ideally, better safety research and evaluations should help frontier labs move faster and more confidently, knowing that the systems they're building are secure.

I've been thinking about how MIT and other universities could contribute more to this work, especially through independent research and evaluations. Had some interesting conversations about that at DevDay, and I'm excited to see where they go!

Another takeaway was just how much you can learn from talking to people. Some of my favorite conversations happened completely randomly, just from introducing myself to someone and asking what they were working on.

Really grateful to the OpenAI team for bringing us together, and to the other students for making it a great 45 hours. Came back to school with a lot of new friends and things I want to explore!