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OpenAI and Anthropic Drop Flagship Models on the Same Day February 5, 2026 marks the first time in over a year that the two AI giants released major updates simultaneously: OpenAI’s GPT 5.3 Codex and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6. OpenAI claims their model is 25% faster and “helped build itself” by debugging its own training data — the first truly self-improving AI, if true. Anthropic positioned Claude as “the enterprise specialist” with agent teams that coordinate multiple AI systems in parallel, plus integration into PowerPoint, Excel, and Slack. For Valley businesses trying to decide which model to bet on, the choice is becoming clear: OpenAI built a faster coder, Anthropic built a better employee. Software Stocks Lose Nearly $1 Trillion in Seven Days The software sector selloff that started last week has now erased close to $1 trillion in market value across ServiceNow, Salesforce, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. The fear driving the panic: if Claude Cowork can replace a $20,000/year Salesforce subscription for $200/month, why pay for enterprise SaaS at all? For local businesses paying hundreds or thousands monthly for CRM, project management, and automation tools, this is the moment to ask whether your software stack is about to become obsolete — or whether you can build your own with AI agents instead. Anthropic Runs Super Bowl Ads Taking Direct Shots at OpenAI Anthropic didn’t just release software today — they ran four Super Bowl spots showing people interrupted by annoying ads while trying to use AI, with the tagline that ChatGPT is becoming “cluttered and consumer-focused” while Claude stays “clean, professional, and ad-free.” It’s a strategic play: OpenAI dominates with 81% consumer market share and 800 million weekly users, while Anthropic is clawing for enterprise trust with 44% penetration in large companies. The question for Valley service businesses: if your clients can access the same AI tools you use, what’s your defensible value in 12 months? US Job Cuts Hit 17-Year High as AI Hiring Freeze Takes Hold January 2026 saw 108,000 job cuts — a 205% jump from December and the worst start to a year since 2009, according to outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. This isn’t just economic softness; it’s the AI hiring freeze we’ve been warning about for 18 months at AICV. Companies aren’t necessarily firing workers en masse like Amazon’s 30,000 cuts, but they’ve flatlined hiring because entry-level work can now be done by AI agents. If you’re not AI-fluent, you’re not hirable — and the Valley’s workforce training programs need to move faster than they are. “Rent a Human” Platform Launches as Reverse Mechanical Turk Crypto engineer Alexander Lightplo launched Rent a Human AI this week — a marketplace where AI agents post bounties for physical tasks like picking up coffee, checking mailboxes, or verifying deliveries, then pay humans instantly in cryptocurrency. Over 80,000 humans signed up in the first few days to work for roughly 80 AI bots. It’s a disturbing glimpse of the stopgap economy before humanoid robots arrive: humans become “hardware” for digital brains, treated like an API call rather than workers. The gig economy was bad enough when the directives came from humans on apps — now they’re coming from agents trying to complete tasks for other humans. Harvard Researchers Release “ChatGPT for Brain Scans” Mass General Brigham and Harvard published a foundational AI model called BrainIAC in Nature Neuroscience today — trained on 49,000 MRI scans to spot patterns humans miss, like rare tumor mutations or early dementia signs. Because it’s software, not a physical machine, it could be deployed to local imaging centers like Eisenhower Desert Regional once it clears regulatory hurdles. For the Coachella Valley, where Alzheimer’s and dementia rank as the third leading cause of death for residents over 65, this means earlier detection, lower costs, and access to world-class neuroradiology expertise without waiting weeks for a specialist to read your scan.

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Local Radar

AICV Workshops Resume This Month — AI Coachella Valley is gearing up for a new round of hands-on AI training sessions in partnership with Cal State San Bernardino’s Entrepreneurial Resource Center. If you’re a small business owner who attended last year’s sessions and hit a wall implementing AI workflows, or if you’re brand new and want to get AI-fluent before the hiring freeze deepens, check aicoellavalley.com for February dates. Eisenhower Health AI Integration Watch — With the BrainIAC announcement today, keep an eye on whether Eisenhower Desert Regional or other Valley healthcare providers announce partnerships with AI diagnostic tools in the coming months. Early dementia detection could become a competitive advantage for local hospitals serving our aging population. Trader Joe’s Grocery Bills Still Climbing — If you’ve noticed your weekly Trader Joe’s run in Palm Springs or Rancho Mirage costing more than ever, you’re not alone. Prices haven’t softened despite economic slowdown signals, and with job cuts accelerating, consumer spending in the Valley could take a hit by spring. Local restaurants and retail should be watching closely. Tesla Optimus Production Shift Coming — Tesla announced it’s discontinuing Model S and Model X production at its Fremont plant to focus on humanoid robot manufacturing. While Optimus won’t be walking Palm Springs streets anytime soon, the shift signals that the “human hardware” economy might be shorter-lived than platforms like Rent a Human expect. ChatGPT Caricature Trend Hits TikTok — If you’ve seen cartoon versions of people flooding Instagram and LinkedIn this week, that’s the viral ChatGPT caricature challenge. Users prompt ChatGPT to create a satirical cartoon based on everything the AI knows about them from conversation history. It’s harmless fun, but it’s also a reminder: even if you opt out of training data, your prompts are still being used for engagement and ad targeting.