(KRON) — Hacker houses are nothing new to the Bay Area tech community. At the fraternal residences, fledgling founders share rent and resources while they toil away coding at what they hope is the next million-dollar startup idea.
But in the high-stakes world of artificial intelligence, the once nerd-filled, frat-like hacker house of old is giving way to something that in some cases, is far more excessive, glamorous, and, at times, dark. Those are the findings of a recent New York Times report on AGI House, a kind of combination hacker house-party pad in upscale Hillsborough.
The house, according to the NYT, has played host to lavish parties, including one at which a “car flew through the air,” and another titled, “Midnight in Paris,” at which guests arrived in horse-drawn carriages to a replica Eiffel Tower. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has reportedly given talks at the home, and singer-songwriter Grimes — former partner to Elon Musk — has performed there.
However, parties at some Bay Area hacker houses have also been the scenes of psychedelic drug use and the sharing of sexual partners, the NYT reported. Some of the new AI wave of hacker houses have also seen allegations of sexual harassment and even rape.
At AGI House — named for “artificial general intelligence,” a hypothetical form of AI that matches or surpasses human capability — police have reportedly logged 37 incidents since 2022, of which, at least 17 were related to complaints about large parties and events on the grounds.
In one incident, a woman at AGI House reportedly called police and told them a male resident had pressured her to have sex. The woman reportedly told police the man had told her she was old and “would be alone forever.”
She wound up climbing over a gate to escape.
In 2025, police reportedly were called at least four times to perform mental health-related welfare checks at the house.
The Residency, another hacker house that’s based in SF, has been advised by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Another SF hacker house, Genesis, was reportedly cofounded by former Google researcher Jeremy Nixon.
According to the NYT, a 30-year-old female tech worker who has lived in four tech houses, filed a police report accusing a former Genesis house member of rape and assault. That case reportedly remains under investigation, and the accused resident has reportedly left the house and cannot be located.
At another hacker house, residents reportedly threw lavish AI parties so often, the owner claimed more than $200,000 in damages, including for a rodent infestation.
AGI House is still hosting events and has even spawned an apparent imitator, AGI House SF.
However, a message on the AGI House website states, “There is ONLY one official AGI House located exclusively in Hillsborough.”