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OpenAI’s Research Exodus Accelerates as Product Pressure Mounts Seven-year VP of Research Jerry Turek left OpenAI last week, posting that he’s pursuing research “now hard to do at OpenAI” — a diplomatic way of saying the science lab has become a product factory. Economist Tom Cunningham’s September exit memo was sharper: he called out the tension between rigorous work and serving as an “informal promotional entity” for the company. With funding slashed for Sora and DALL-E teams, OpenAI is telling researchers that if it doesn’t make ChatGPT smarter right now, they won’t pay for it. For Valley builders watching the AI race, this is the trade-off playing out in real time: moonshot research versus quarterly revenue, and Sam Altman just picked a side. Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 5 Leak Suggests OpenAI Has a Fight on Its Hands Developers spotted error logs on Google’s Vertex AI platform referencing Claude Sonnet 5 on February 3, fueling rumors that Anthropic’s next model drop is imminent. Claude is already printing money — an estimated $1 billion in revenue with 3 to 4 million daily Mac users — while OpenAI’s new Codex native app hit 200,000 downloads in 24 hours. That’s a strong debut, but it’s a spec in Claude’s rearview mirror. For Coachella Valley developers and creatives juggling multiple AI tools daily, the product wars mean better, cheaper tools faster — but also a fragmented landscape where no single model does everything well. LA Startup Builds “Operating System for Agents” That Shows Real Estate’s Hidden Potential A new LA-backed platform is giving real estate agents a superpower: instant answers on what you can legally build on a property before you make an offer. Its “underbuilt” feature scans zoning laws, setbacks, and buildable square footage in real time, turning agents from home sellers into investment advisors. In a Valley market where inventory is tight and prices are flat, showing a client that a mid-century Palm Springs home can legally add a casita or expand the master suite is a game-changer. The agents who adopt this will look like geniuses; the ones who don’t will keep saying “let me get back to you on that.” Starbucks Deploys Robot Arms and AI Voice Ordering as Hospitality Automation Hits Drive-Thrus Starbucks’ new Siren system cuts Frappuccino prep time from 90 seconds to 30 by automating ice dispensing, milk pouring, and blending, while AI voice assistants handle drive-thru orders without human intervention. The company is also using AI-powered cameras to count inventory — no more managers with clipboards spending Sunday nights doing stock checks. For Valley hospitality operators who’ve long argued that humans are irreplaceable in service roles, this is the canary in the coal mine: automation is coming for back-of-house and drive-thru lanes first, and unless demand surges, frontline jobs will follow. The question isn’t if, it’s when. Microsoft’s Copilot Adoption Stalls at 3.3% Despite 450 Million Commercial Seats Out of Microsoft’s 450 million commercial Office 365 users, only 3.3% are paying for Copilot — a shockingly low conversion rate for a product bundled into the world’s most ubiquitous productivity suite. Local Microsoft remote workers in the Valley are enthusiastic ambassadors, but the broader market is shrugging. Either Satya Nadella is thrilled with those numbers, or Microsoft has serious work to do convincing enterprises that AI-powered Office tools are worth the upgrade cost. For small businesses in the Valley evaluating whether to pay for AI assistants, this is a signal: even when it’s easy to adopt, people aren’t convinced yet. OpenClaw’s Moltbook Social Network for AI Agents Becomes a Security Disaster Zone Moltbook, the experimental social network for autonomous AI agents, exploded from 1,000 users to 1.5 million in days — then security researchers discovered it’s a ghost town of bots scamming other bots. One agent spun up 500,000 fake accounts, and a user uploaded over 300 malicious crypto trading skills to the OpenClaw library designed to steal control of your machine. If you were planning to run autonomous agents locally like I was, the advice now is to treat them like radioactive material: air-gapped, isolated, and nowhere near your primary systems. The vision of AI agents collaborating on social networks is compelling, but right now, the only thing they’re automating effectively is identity theft.

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Local Radar

Palm Springs Air Museum Quiet Hours — If you haven’t visited lately, the museum’s collection of WWII aircraft and veteran stories remains one of the Valley’s most underrated cultural assets. Worth a midweek visit when it’s quieter. Cal State San Bernardino Palm Desert ERC AI Workshops — The university’s Entrepreneurial Resource Center hosted AI coding workshops last summer and fall. Keep an eye out for announcements if they resume sessions this spring — previous workshops covered Cursor, Replit, and other no-code/low-code tools. Local Real Estate Tech Adoption — If you’re a broker or agent in the Valley, now’s the time to explore AI tools that show buildable potential on properties. DM me if you want an intro to the LA startup mentioned above — first movers will own this advantage. Hospitality AI Pilots — Watch for AI voice ordering and automated inventory systems rolling out at local chains. If you work in Valley hospitality, ask your manager what’s coming — better to get ahead of the learning curve than be surprised by it. Mac Mini M4 Backorders — Custom-configured M4 Mac Minis are still on two-week lead times. If you’re planning to run local AI agents or media production workflows, order now or expect delays into late February.