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Y Combinator<\/a>, the startup accelerator and investment firm that helped produce Airbnb<\/a>, Dropbox<\/a>, and Instacart, is embarking on a creation project arguably more ambitious than any company.
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\n\"We want to build cities,\" wrote Y Combinator<\/a> partner Adora Cheung and President Sam Altman in an announcement slated for release Monday. YC Research, Y Combinator’s nonprofit arm, plans to solicit proposals for research into new construction methods, power sources, driverless cars, even notions of zoning and property rights. Among other things, the project aims to develop ways to reduce housing expenses by 90 percent and to develop a city code of laws simple enough to fit on 100 pages of text. Eventually the plan is to actually produce a prototype city. \"We’re not trying to build a utopia for techies,\" says Cheung, the project’s director and the former CEO of failed housecleaning startup Homejoy. \"This is a city for humans.\"
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Initial applications are due July 30. Cheung says she'll start hiring researchers this year and is already thinking about possible locations. If all goes well, the project would be a showcase for new urban policy ideas—and for the expanding ambitions of Y Combinator, which was dismissed as unserious by rival venture firms when it was founded in 2005. Early on, YC, as it’s known in Silicon Valley<\/a>, was best known for making investments as low as $6,000, so small that its portfolio companies were told to aim for \"ramen profitability,\" or to generate enough profit so that the founders could afford instant ramen.
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YC has since seeded more than 1,000 startups and today competes in later-stage deals with the likes of Sequoia<\/a> Capital and Andreessen Horowitz through a $700 million venture fund managed by former Twitter Chief Operating Officer Ali Rowghani. Altman formed YC Research last year with a $10 million personal donation and a contention that \"research institutions can be better than they are today.\" He now says the lab will eventually have an annual budget of $100 million. \"The central theme is to work on things that we need for the successful evolution of humanity,\" says Altman.
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\nLast December, Altman and Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, announced the formation of OpenAI, a research effort aimed at ensuring that advances in artificial intelligence don’t lead to killer robots that destroy human civilization. (Musk has suggested that artificial intelligence could be \"more dangerous than nukes.\") The following month, Altman announced a long-term study into \"basic income,\" the concept of giving citizens a cash allowance to spend as they wish. (A pilot program is now in the works in Oakland.) In May, Altman and computer scientist Alan Kay formed the Human Advancement Research Community, a research lab focused on education, among other things.
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\nThe city project inserts YC into a long-running debate over housing affordability. For years, activists in San Francisco have blamed tech startups—especially Airbnb<\/a>, Y Combinator’s most valuable portfolio company—for record-setting rents and home prices.
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\nAltman denies that YC’s new research efforts represent a response to the backlash against tech investors, characterizing them as an an effort to apply the firm's innovation model to society’s most intractable problems. \"I believe that we should view it as a basic human right to have enough money to afford food and shelter,\" says Altman, referring to the basic income study. \"It’s an idea that’s makes sense to most children.\"\n\n<\/body>","next_sibling":[{"msid":52951423,"title":"HR will mean getting the 'crowd' involved to bring in new ideas: R Anand, HCL Technologies","entity_type":"ARTICLE","link":"\/news\/hr-will-mean-getting-the-crowd-involved-to-bring-in-new-ideas-r-anand-hcl-technologies\/52951423","category_name":null,"category_name_seo":"telecomnews"}],"related_content":[],"msid":52951674,"entity_type":"ARTICLE","title":"Silicon Valley\u2019s latest startup offering is to build a whole city","synopsis":"Among other things, the project aims to develop ways to reduce housing expenses by 90 percent and to develop a city code of laws simple enough to fit on 100 pages of text.","titleseo":"telecomnews\/silicon-valleys-latest-startup-offering-is-to-build-a-whole-city","status":"ACTIVE","authors":[],"Alttitle":{"minfo":""},"artag":"Bloomberg","artdate":"2016-06-28 11:42:39","lastupd":"2016-06-28 11:43:34","breadcrumbTags":["industry","silicon valley","Sequoia","Dropbox","Y Combinator","Airbnb"],"secinfo":{"seolocation":"telecomnews\/silicon-valleys-latest-startup-offering-is-to-build-a-whole-city"}}" data-authors="[" "]" data-category-name="" data-category_id="" data-date="2016-06-28" data-index="article_1">
由马克斯Chafkin
Y Combinator启动加速器和投资公司,协助生产Airbnb,Dropbox和Instacart着手创建项目可以说比任何一家公司都更加雄心勃勃。
“我们想要构建城市写道Y Combinator伙伴安多拉张和Sam Altman总统定于周一发布公告。Y Combinator的非营利部门,YC研究计划征求建议研究新的施工方法,电源,无人驾驶汽车,甚至分区的概念和产权。除此之外,该项目旨在开发方法来减少90%的住房费用和开发城市代码简单的法律以适应在100页的文本。最终的计划是实际生产原型。“我们不是为技术人员试图建立一个乌托邦,”张说,项目的负责人和失败的前首席执行官肃清启动用户。“这是一个对人类城市。”
最初的应用程序将于7月30日。张说她今年将开始招聘人员,已经思考可能的位置。如果一切顺利,这个项目将是一个展示新城市政策为Y Combinator的扩张野心,都被视为不严肃的的竞争对手时,风险投资公司成立于2005年。在早期,YC,因为它是已知的硅谷,最出名的是投资低至6000美元,如此之小,其投资组合公司被告知要瞄准“拉面盈利,”或产生足够的利润,这样的创业者可以即时拉面。
YC今天已经播种1000多个公司和后期处理的竞争红杉资本资本和Andreessen Horowitz通过7亿美元的风险基金由Twitter前首席运营官Ali Rowghani管理。奥特曼形成YC研究去年以1000万美元的个人捐款和争用“研究机构可以比现在更好。”He now says the lab will eventually have an annual budget of $100 million. "The central theme is to work on things that we need for the successful evolution of humanity," says Altman.
去年12月,奥特曼和Elon Musk,特斯拉和SpaceX公司首席执行官宣布成立OpenAI,研究工作旨在确保人工智能的进步导致机器人杀手,不破坏人类文明。(麝香表明,人工智能将比核武器更危险。)以下,奥特曼宣布了一项长期研究“基本收入,”的概念给予公民自由支配的现金津贴。(一个试点项目现在在奥克兰工作。)今年5月,奥特曼和计算机科学家Alan Kay形成了人类进步研究社区,研究实验室专注于教育,等等。
城市项目将YC插入一个长时间运行的住房负担能力的争论。多年来,激进分子在旧金山指责科技startups-especiallyAirbnbY Combinator最有价值的投资组合——创纪录的租金和房价。
奥特曼否认YC的新研究成果代表了一种应对反对科技的投资者,将它们作为一个为了公司的创新模式应用于社会最棘手的问题。“我认为,我们应该把它看成是一项基本的人权,有足够的钱购买食物和住所,”奥特曼说,指的是研究的基本收入。“这是一个有意义的想法大多数孩子。”
Y Combinator启动加速器和投资公司,协助生产Airbnb,Dropbox和Instacart着手创建项目可以说比任何一家公司都更加雄心勃勃。
“我们想要构建城市写道Y Combinator伙伴安多拉张和Sam Altman总统定于周一发布公告。Y Combinator的非营利部门,YC研究计划征求建议研究新的施工方法,电源,无人驾驶汽车,甚至分区的概念和产权。除此之外,该项目旨在开发方法来减少90%的住房费用和开发城市代码简单的法律以适应在100页的文本。最终的计划是实际生产原型。“我们不是为技术人员试图建立一个乌托邦,”张说,项目的负责人和失败的前首席执行官肃清启动用户。“这是一个对人类城市。”
最初的应用程序将于7月30日。张说她今年将开始招聘人员,已经思考可能的位置。如果一切顺利,这个项目将是一个展示新城市政策为Y Combinator的扩张野心,都被视为不严肃的的竞争对手时,风险投资公司成立于2005年。在早期,YC,因为它是已知的硅谷,最出名的是投资低至6000美元,如此之小,其投资组合公司被告知要瞄准“拉面盈利,”或产生足够的利润,这样的创业者可以即时拉面。
YC今天已经播种1000多个公司和后期处理的竞争红杉资本资本和Andreessen Horowitz通过7亿美元的风险基金由Twitter前首席运营官Ali Rowghani管理。奥特曼形成YC研究去年以1000万美元的个人捐款和争用“研究机构可以比现在更好。”He now says the lab will eventually have an annual budget of $100 million. "The central theme is to work on things that we need for the successful evolution of humanity," says Altman.
去年12月,奥特曼和Elon Musk,特斯拉和SpaceX公司首席执行官宣布成立OpenAI,研究工作旨在确保人工智能的进步导致机器人杀手,不破坏人类文明。(麝香表明,人工智能将比核武器更危险。)以下,奥特曼宣布了一项长期研究“基本收入,”的概念给予公民自由支配的现金津贴。(一个试点项目现在在奥克兰工作。)今年5月,奥特曼和计算机科学家Alan Kay形成了人类进步研究社区,研究实验室专注于教育,等等。
城市项目将YC插入一个长时间运行的住房负担能力的争论。多年来,激进分子在旧金山指责科技startups-especiallyAirbnbY Combinator最有价值的投资组合——创纪录的租金和房价。
奥特曼否认YC的新研究成果代表了一种应对反对科技的投资者,将它们作为一个为了公司的创新模式应用于社会最棘手的问题。“我认为,我们应该把它看成是一项基本的人权,有足够的钱购买食物和住所,”奥特曼说,指的是研究的基本收入。“这是一个有意义的想法大多数孩子。”
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