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Undergrad Computer Science Enrollment Drops for First Time Since Dot-Com Bust University of California system saw its first decline in CS enrollment since the early 2000s, with only UC San Diego bucking the trend by launching an undergraduate AI major last year. Nationally, CS enrollment fell 8% while graduate programs dropped nearly twice as fast, driven by unprecedented tech layoffs (127,000 in 2025), a 25% reduction in new graduate hiring at big tech, and widespread fear that AI will eliminate entry-level positions faster than students can graduate. For Coachella Valley universities like Cal State San Bernardino and College of the Desert with 20,000+ students annually, the question isn’t whether to offer AI programs — it’s whether they’re already too late. Google Offers Voluntary Exit Packages to Employees Not Ready for AI Pace Alphabet’s Chief Business Officer sent an internal memo offering severance to employees in sales, solutions, and corporate development who “may not be ready to embrace the company’s accelerated AI-focused direction.” This isn’t a layoff — it’s an invitation to leave if you can’t keep up with the velocity Google believes is required to compete in 2026. If you’re a burned-out tech worker with equity vesting and a desire to escape the rocket race, Palm Springs offers 350 days of sunshine, cheaper commercial real estate, and a chance to build your next chapter in stealth mode. Reach out — we’ll show you around. Commercial Real Estate Services Firms Plummet 15-20% on AI Disruption Fears CBRE, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Cushman & Wakefield all saw their steepest single-day declines since March 2020 as investors rotated out of “high-fee, labor-intensive business models” vulnerable to AI disruption. The sell-off was compounded by Zillow’s weak guidance, which plunged 20% after missing EBITDA forecasts. For a Valley economy heavily dependent on real estate transactions and property advisory services, this is a canary-in-the-coal-mine moment — if the big players are repricing risk this aggressively, local brokerages and title companies should be stress-testing their workflows now. AI Models Now Write Code That Builds the Next Generation of AI OpenAI’s GPT-5.3 Codex documentation quietly revealed that the model “was instrumental in creating itself,” debugging its own training and managing its own deployment. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei confirmed AI is now writing much of the code at his company, and the feedback loop between current AI and next-generation AI is “gathering steam month by month.” This isn’t a prediction — it’s a technical milestone that researchers call the beginning of an “intelligence explosion.” The Coachella Valley’s workforce, still largely untrained in AI fundamentals, is about to face competition from systems that improve themselves exponentially. 71% of Americans Fear AI Will Permanently Eliminate Jobs — and They’re Not Wrong A Reuters-Ipsos poll found 71% of Americans believe AI will put too many people out of work permanently, while a Resume Now survey showed 60% of workers think AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates in 2026. MIT’s Iceberg Index estimates current AI systems can already automate tasks representing 11.7% of the US labor market — roughly 20 million workers and $1.2 trillion in wages. Stanford found a 13% decline in employment for workers ages 22-25 in AI-exposed fields since 2022. These aren’t hypotheticals — they’re measurements of what’s already happening, and the Coachella Valley’s hospitality, real estate, and administrative workforce is directly in the crosshairs. Anthropic Pledges to Cover Data Center Electricity Costs Amid Political Pressure Anthropic announced it will absorb the costs of grid infrastructure upgrades required to power its data centers, responding to mounting concerns over energy-hungry AI facilities driving up consumer electricity bills. This matters locally because Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, and Imperial County are actively courting data center developers with promises of cheap solar and wind power. Imperial County is building three massive data centers with minimal resident input, including one next to a middle school still under construction. The question isn’t whether AI infrastructure is coming to the desert — it’s whether local leadership is prioritizing tax revenue over environmental and public health concerns. Real Estate Startup Dono Raises Funding to Modernize County Property Records Dono launched an AI-powered platform that transforms fragmented county property records across 3,700 US registries into accessible ownership data, addressing a $50 trillion real estate market tethered to Frankenstein systems of outdated tech and literal pen-and-paper processes. The title insurance industry faces a labor crisis with 50% of its workforce expected to retire in the next five years, creating an opening for AI to eliminate friction in home closings and title searches. For Coachella Valley real estate professionals still relying on manual county database searches, this is another signal that the entire transactional infrastructure of the industry is being rebuilt — and those who don’t adapt will be left behind. Matt Schumer’s Viral Post: “Something Big Is Happening” Hits 54 Million Views Hyper Right AI CEO Matt Schumer published a 20,000-word essay warning that AI has crossed a threshold where it’s no longer a helpful tool but “a general substitute for cognitive work” that improves at everything simultaneously. He describes using AI to build entire apps end-to-end with zero human intervention, watching models test themselves, iterate on their own designs, and deliver finished products with “something that felt like judgment, like taste.” His warning: the experience tech workers had over the past year — watching AI go from assistant to replacement — is about to happen to law, finance, medicine, accounting, and every other white-collar field within one to five years. For a Coachella Valley still teaching “what is an LLM” in 2026, this should be a five-alarm fire.

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Local Radar

Cal State San Bernardino and College of the Desert AI Proposals Still Pending AICV submitted workshop and boot camp proposals to CSUSB and COD in September/October 2025 to continue the 25+ AI training sessions held last summer. Despite follow-up emails and nudges, neither institution has moved forward. If you’re a student, faculty member, or administrator who wants to see AI education accelerated locally, contact CSUSB leadership and COD President Val Garcia directly — or DM @SunshineFM to coordinate pressure. Imperial County Data Center Construction Near Middle School Three large-scale data centers are under construction in Imperial County with minimal resident consultation, including one being built adjacent to a new middle school still in development. If you’re concerned about environmental impact, energy consumption, or public health implications of AI infrastructure in the desert, now is the time to attend county planning meetings and make your voice heard before these facilities go operational. Local Real Estate Professionals: Stress-Test Your Business Model With commercial real estate services firms down 15-20% this week and AI startups like Dono and Underbuilt automating title searches, property records, and development feasibility analysis, local brokerages should be running scenario planning on what their revenue looks like if transaction costs drop 30-50% over the next 24 months. If you’re a Coachella Valley real estate professional interested in discussing AI’s impact on your business, reach out to SunshineFM for a confidential conversation. Silicon Valley Relocation Opportunity: Cheap Lease Rates, 350 Days of Sunshine If you’re a tech worker taking a voluntary exit package from Google, Meta, or another AI-focused company and want to build your next startup in stealth mode, the Coachella Valley offers dramatically lower commercial lease rates, proximity to LA and San Diego, and a community eager to support builders. Contact SunshineFM for familiarization trips, real estate tours, and introductions to local resources. Weekly AI Experiment: One Hour a Day for Six Months Commit to spending one hour daily experimenting with AI — not reading about it, but using it to solve real problems in your work. Try Claude Opus 4.6 or GPT-5.2 (not the free versions) and push them into tasks you think they can’t handle. If you do this for six months, you’ll understand what’s coming better than 99% of people around you. DM @SunshineFM with what you discover — we’ll feature the most interesting experiments on air.