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SunshineFM Records Signs AI Artists, Tests New Creative Economics SunshineFM launched what it’s calling a record label featuring AI-generated artists like “Emmy,” who’s already released songs about El Paseo. This isn’t a tech demo — it’s a working experiment in whether AI-native media can build audience and revenue in a real market like the Coachella Valley. The implications for local musicians, producers, and creative agencies are obvious: the tools to create radio-ready content just became radically cheaper and faster. The question is whether audiences care who — or what — made the song. Anthropic’s Claude Cowork Plugins Erase $285B in Software Market Cap Anthropic released 11 new Claude Cowork plugins this week, triggering a $285 billion single-day wipeout across software stocks as investors recalculated the value of SaaS businesses. The plugins automate legal contract review, sales pipeline management, and other white-collar workflows that companies like Salesforce and LegalZoom built empires on. For Valley businesses running heavy admin overhead — real estate brokerages, estate planning firms, hospitality back offices — this is the moment to audit your software stack. The question isn’t if AI replaces your tools, it’s which ones go first and what you build in their place. Waymo Expands to Palm Springs Airport, Signals Autonomous Future for Valley Transit Waymo announced service to Palm Springs International Airport, making PSP one of the first mid-sized airports in the country with direct autonomous vehicle access. This matters because it validates the Valley as a testbed for next-gen transit infrastructure, not just a tourism market. For local operators — hotels, tour companies, car rental agencies — the competitive landscape just shifted: visitors can now skip the rental counter entirely. The real opportunity is figuring out what hospitality looks like when transportation is invisible. Perplexity’s New “Spaces” Feature Lets Teams Build Custom AI Research Environments Perplexity launched Spaces, a feature that lets teams create shared, persistent AI research environments with custom sources, prompts, and memory. It’s aimed squarely at replacing internal wikis, Notion databases, and the chaotic Slack threads where institutional knowledge goes to die. For Valley startups and small businesses, this is a low-cost way to build a knowledge layer without hiring a full-time ops person. The catch: you’re training your team to rely on a tool that’s still figuring out its business model. OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 Rollout Delayed Amid Safety Review, Developers Left Waiting OpenAI delayed the public rollout of GPT-4.5 this week, citing internal safety reviews and alignment testing. Developers who’ve been building on the promise of better reasoning and longer context windows are now stuck in limbo, some reconsidering their tech stack entirely. For local builders in the Valley experimenting with AI-powered products — chatbots, content tools, customer service automation — this is a reminder that the foundation you’re building on is still moving. The smart play is to design for model-agnostic architecture from day one. Meta’s Llama 4 Benchmarks Leak, Shows Parity With GPT-4 on Reasoning Tasks Leaked benchmarks suggest Meta’s upcoming Llama 4 model performs on par with GPT-4 on complex reasoning tasks, a significant jump from Llama 3’s capabilities. If true, this means the open-source AI stack just got a major upgrade, giving developers a credible alternative to OpenAI’s closed ecosystem. For Valley technologists, this could lower the cost of running sophisticated AI applications by an order of magnitude. The question is whether Meta can ship it before OpenAI’s next move. Local AI Adoption Still Lagging in Coachella Valley SMBs, Despite National Hype Despite the national AI frenzy, most small and medium businesses in the Coachella Valley still aren’t using AI tools in any meaningful way, according to informal surveys and local tech meetups. The gap isn’t awareness — it’s implementation: business owners don’t know where to start, what to trust, or how to measure ROI. For local consultants, agencies, and technologists, this is the market opportunity hiding in plain sight. The Valley needs translators, not evangelists.

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Local Radar

Desert Tech Meetup – February 4, 6pm, Coachella Valley Brewing Co. Monthly gathering for local developers, founders, and tech-curious folks. This month’s theme: AI tools you can actually use in your business today. Free, open to all. Palm Springs International Film Festival Wrap The festival concluded this week, but the economic impact data is worth watching — early estimates suggest record attendance and hotel occupancy. If you’re in hospitality or events, the post-festival debrief reports usually drop mid-February. Modernism Week Preview Events Start February 8 Pre-week events kick off next weekend, with the full festival running February 13-23. If you’re in design, real estate, or tourism, this is the Valley’s second-biggest economic engine after Coachella Fest. PSP Airport Traffic Data for January Due Next Week Palm Springs International typically releases monthly passenger data in the first week of the following month. Watch for trends in winter visitor volume — it’s a leading indicator for spring season strength. Coachella Valley Economic Partnership Q1 Report – February 15 CVEP’s quarterly economic snapshot drops mid-month. Key sections to watch: job growth in hospitality and construction, plus any updates on the lithium extraction projects near the Salton Sea.