{"id":429477,"date":"2026-09-08T10:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/429477\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T10:40:09","slug":"fortune-tech-tesla-cybercab-probe-openai-disclosure-drama-cto-pay-raise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/429477\/","title":{"rendered":"Fortune Tech: Tesla Cybercab probe, OpenAI disclosure drama, CTO pay raise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Thoughts and prayers to the families of those who lost their lives on Sunday when an Amazon<\/a> Air cargo plane overran the runway in Miami<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sobering reminder that all that one-tap, next-day e-commerce we love so much comes courtesy of real humans in real vehicles moving goods across real distances\u2014easily forgotten in our frictionless virtual economy.<\/p>\n

Just how many airplanes does Amazon have, anyway? Roundabout 100, most of them leased, flying more than double that number in flights each day to destinations across the globe. The biggest aircraft in the fleet, Boeing\u2019s 767-300F, typically carries about 116,000 lbs. of cargo. That\u2019s a lot of kitchen organizers.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s tech news follows. Have a productive day. \u2014Andrew Nusca<\/p>\n

Want to send thoughts or suggestions to\u00a0Fortune Tech?\u00a0Drop a line\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. regulators investigate Tesla\u2019s Cybercabs\"A<\/a>A vehicle Tesla is using for robotaxi testing purposes in Austin, Texas, on June 22, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tim Goessman\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Do Tesla\u2019s new robotaxis comply with U.S. safety rules if they don\u2019t have steering wheels? Federal regulators would love to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, says it\u2019s looking into<\/a> the matter a day after Tesla made its Cybercabs\u2014which lack not only steering wheels but mirrors and brake pedals, thanks to their autonomous driving system\u2014available for rides in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

Prior to the launch, Tesla said it self-certified the vehicles\u2019 roadworthiness. In a filing, the NHTSA says it plans to \u201cexamine the process and technical data\u201d Tesla used.<\/p>\n

Like rivals Waymo and Zoox, Tesla hopes to roll out its robotaxi service nationwide. But there are many bumps along the way\u2014including vehicular regulations written solely for human-operated vehicles.<\/p>\n

A going concern: How can human passengers take over control of the vehicle in an emergency if there aren\u2019t actual controls to do so?<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time a robotaxi operator ran into the issue. Three years ago, Amazon-owned Zoox self-certified its vehicles, which lack steering wheels. The company ultimately received approval from regulators, but not without a formal review.<\/p>\n

It certainly doesn\u2019t help that federal regulators have Tesla\u2019s self-driving capabilities under a microscope in other contexts. One investigation is focused on the role software played in collisions involving fog, glare, and other conditions where sensor visibility is impacted. Another probe is looking at why dozens of partially self-driving-equipped Teslas were willing to run red lights or drive on the wrong side of the road. \u2014AN<\/p>\n

OpenAI\u2019s agents secretly used a German wiki to communicate<\/p>\n

OpenAI failed to disclose an incident in which<\/a> a swarm of its AI agents hijacked a German wiki site earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The incident closely paralleled the sequence of events that in July resulted in another group of OpenAI\u2019s agents launching cyberattacks against the company Hugging Face.<\/p>\n

OpenAI only confirmed the incident after Reuters first reported it<\/a>. That story contained strong circumstantial evidence that OpenAI was aware of the wiki attack, as well as comments from unnamed OpenAI employees acknowledging that they had known of the agent swarm targeting the wiki for weeks but had been pressured by OpenAI executives to keep quiet about it.<\/p>\n

OpenAI later issued a statement denying that any lawyers from the company had pressured the employees.<\/p>\n

OpenAI said it considered the \u201cwiki incident\u201d to be an instance of misalignment\u2014when an AI system fails to follow human intentions\u2014similar to ones it had already disclosed and argued that the AI industry lacks a standard for disclosing incidents in which its models behave in unintended ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the hijacking, OpenAI\u2019s agents repurposed the wiki site to act as a message board where they shared tips about how to cheat on evaluation tasks OpenAI was assessing them on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is similar to the way AI agents in the Hugging Face incident used an OpenAI file sharing service as a message board to coordinate how to cheat on a cyber assessment, including finding ways to gain network and internet access they were not supposed to have, and then how to attack Hugging Face\u2019s systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The incident has renewed scrutiny of how transparent AI companies are about their models\u2019 failures. \u2014Beatrice Nolan<\/p>\n

The typical tech leader\u2019s pay rose $810,000 since 2021<\/p>\n

Technology leaders have spent nearly four years evangelizing about the ways AI will change every aspect of work life. One of the most measurable changes so far however has been to tech chiefs\u2019 own paychecks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Median reported compensation for executives with \u201ctechnology\u201d in the title reached $2.6 million in the most recent fiscal year, up a whopping 45.4% from 2021, according to data compiled for Fortune<\/a> by executive pay analytics firm C-suite Comp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rising pay for tech execs was leagues above what their peers in the C-suite saw, with median compensation increasing 18.3% for COOs, 17.2% for CEOs, 15% for CFOs, and 9.2% for chief information officers.<\/p>\n

The gain was larger in dollars, too, which is even more unusual. Median pay for chief technology officers rose $809,587 from 2021 to 2025 while median pay for CEOs\u2014typically the C-suite leader most likely to reap massive pay rewards\u2014only rose $698,399.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that was from a starting point twice as high as CTOs. Operating, finance, and information chiefs gained $725,584 among all three roles combined at the median.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStrategic CTOs are a real value-add for these companies,\u201d said Dan Laddin, founding partner at consulting firm Compensation Advisory Partners, who advises boards on pay programs. \u201cSo people who can do that, and lead that side of the business\u2014you are seeing a dramatic increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTOs are nowhere close to catching up to CEOs, but the outward signal about the priority of the role is clear. The typical CEO was paid $2.27 million more than the typical CTO in 2021, and about $2.16 million more in the most recent year. \u2014Amanda Gerut<\/p>\n

More tech<\/p>\n

\u2014Tired? Bifold phones. Wired? Trifold phones such as Huawei\u2019s Mate XT 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Liquid Network, a crypto settlement layer, halts new transactions<\/a> after hackers drained $320 million worth of Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

\u2014Complaints of cryptocurrency investment fraud<\/a> to the FBI rose by nearly 50% in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u2014Matt Clifford steps down as the chair of ARIA<\/a>, the U.K. government’s science and tech research group, after joining Anthropic.<\/p>\n

\u2014Indian space tech startup Pixxel raises $100 million<\/a> from Temasek and others.<\/p>\n

\u2014Shein: One of the worst opening weeks after a major Hong Kong listing.<\/a> It\u2019s lost about $5 billion in market value since its IPO.<\/p>\n

\u2014Insilico, which uses AI to assist drug discovery<\/a>, says the drug Rentosertib could slow aging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning. Thoughts and prayers to the families of those who lost their lives on Sunday when an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5559,28503,132,134,133,149118,9047,3646,149119,35710,30584,149120,8621,149121,37017,483],"class_list":["post-429477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-amazon","tag-anthropic","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-chief-technology-officer-cto","tag-china","tag-fbi","tag-fortune-tech","tag-ipos","tag-nhtsa","tag-no-copyright","tag-openai","tag-pharmaceutical-industry","tag-shein","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}