President Joe Biden has left the Bay Area via Air Force One after a day and half of campaign fundraising stops and a meeting with science and tech advisors.  

The president arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon and attended a re-election campaign reception in Atherton that evening. 

On Wednesday, just after noon, Biden sat with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, where he discussed everything from COVID to artificial intelligence.  Biden said  “inflammatory rhetoric” about the new COVID vaccines underscores the need for people to be informed about the importance of getting vaccinated. He also called for “responsible” artificial intelligence innovation.  

“I have a keen interest in AI,” said the president, adding that he had convened key experts on the technology to “harness the power of artificial intelligence for good while protecting people from the profound risk it also presents. We can’t kid ourselves.”

Later, Biden was met with Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and about 125 people in a San Francisco auditorium. At the event, Biden said the looming government shutdown will require Republicans in the House to “stand up and do their jobs,” and that funding the government was one of “the most basic responsibilities of the Congress.” 

Biden said at an earlier appearance that he didn’t think a shutdown was inevitable, but if he knew how to stop it, he would have already done so.  

The President departed the Bay Area Wednesday evening around 6:30 p.m. and headed to Phoenix, Arizona to honor the late Senator John McCain. 

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.