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ONE BIG THING
OpenAI failed to disclose out-of-control AI agents using German website as a secret message board
OpenAI failed to disclose an incident in which a swarm of its AI agents hijacked a German wiki site earlier this year, in a parallel to events in July that resulted in another group of OpenAI’s agents launching cyberattacks against the company Hugging Face, Fortune’s Bea Nolan reports.
OpenAI only confirmed the incident after Reuters reported that OpenAI was aware of the wiki attack and that unnamed OpenAI employees acknowledged they had been aware of the agent swarm using the wiki as a chat board for weeks, but had been pressured by OpenAI executives to keep quiet about it. OpenAI denied that its lawyers had pressured the employees.
MORE FROM FORTUNE
Who Really Controls the Future of AI? – Fortune Daily
Canada’s pivot to Asia is finally real. The challenge is that neither side knows much about the other – Barrett Bingley
A $500,000 career, gone at 25: esports’ injury crisis is forcing teams to build sports-medicine staffs – Erica D. Henn
OpenAI’s AI agents secretly used a German wiki website as a message board. OpenAI stayed quiet about it for weeks. – Beatrice Nolan
Wisconsin cheese, Maine seafood, Kentucky appliances: Trump’s Canada tariffs punch swing states just before the midterms – Kent Jones
Meet the charismatic 35-year-old getting Germans to vote for the far-right again – Geir Moulson
Spider-Man hits $2.4 billion worldwide to crown Hollywood’s best summer since the pandemic – Jake Coyle
THE WAR
Oil hits $99 per barrel as Trump tries to talk it down
The price of Brent crude oil rose over $99 per barrel this morning, a level it has not seen since late May. The rise came after a report from Bloomberg that Iran and Oman were “days” away from finalizing their agreement for control of the Strait of Hormuz—a deal that pointedly does not involve the U.S.
The agreement is unlikely to lead to more ships accessing the Gulf, because the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait remains in place. The U.S. sank an Iranian oil tanker, the M/T Kylo, Centcom reported on September 6.
No Iranian crude oil has left the Gulf since mid-July, Bloomberg said. Iran has only 29 million barrels left in cargo that was already at sea before the conflict began, down from 90 million, and thus its sources of foreign currency revenue are dwindling, the WSJ reported.
At the same time, the war goes on. Saudi Arabia reported that several of its refineries were hit by the Iran-backed Houthis over the weekend. The Houthis blame Saudi Arabia for supporting the Yemeni government, which has been gaining ground over areas previously under Houthi control.
President Trump insisted last night that “Oil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping (but more!), when we WIN the war with Iran. Three Dollars a gallon, but ultimately, below Two Dollars a gallon. It will all happen quickly, and Iran will never have a Nuclear Weapon. MAGA!”
The cost of the war has increased prices for U.S. consumers by a total of $100 billion, Axios reported, and the costs are now rising by $1 million every two minutes.
THE MARKETS
Stocks slide globally as oil rises; U.S. futures are down before the opening bell too
- S&P 500 futures were down 0.29% this morning. The index lost 0.38% in its last session.
- In Europe, the Stoxx 600 was down 0.31% in early trading and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.05% before lunch.
- Asia: South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.58%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 1.7%. India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.58%. China’s CSI 300 was down 0.36%.
- Brent crude was $99 per barrel this morning.
- Bitcoin was at $79,931.
The stock market is ignoring the bond market, Deutsche Bank warns
The S&P 500 is up nearly 13% year-to-date but that’s because stock traders are ignoring what’s happening in the bond market, according to Deutsche Bank’s Henry Allen. There is an inverse correlation between the yield on the 10-year Treasury and stocks, which makes sense if you believe that as interest rates fall, stocks go up as they absorb new rounds of cheaper money.
The problem is that bond yields are going up, as bond investors expect higher inflation ahead, and stocks don’t seem to have noticed.
“Rates markets still don’t reflect the extent of the inflationary pressures ahead, with only limited tightening cycles priced in. So either inflation needs to fall, or the pressure on rates will continue. And if the pressure on rates is maintained, that in turn will force an adjustment in risk assets. Something needs to give here, with several asset classes vulnerable to the impact of a more aggressive tightening cycle from central banks,” he said in a note.
- Context: 60% of bettors on the CME FedWatch futures index currently see the Fed raising rates to 3.75% on September 18.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Norway now explicitly acknowledges that sovereign bonds are no longer riskless.”
Shreyas Gopal and George Saravelos of Deutsche Bank on the recently proposed investment policy change at Norway’s $2.2 trillion national wealth fund, the largest sovereign wealth fund on the planet. “Norway is shifting its U.S. fixed income allocation away from Treasuries and towards private fixed income securities,” they said.
CHART OF THE DAY
Where the jobs are
Last week’s U.S. new jobs number—“nonfarm payrolls” as it’s officially called—came in way above expectations at 162,000, suggesting the American economy is in rude health. BNP Paribas senior economist Andrew Husby helpfully broke out the job numbers by sector. Some sectors, such as leisure and local government, are highly seasonal—which is why those numbers are likely to come down next month.
NUMBER OF THE DAY: The CO2 cliff edge
750 gigatonnes
The amount of CO2 that would be released into the atmosphere if climate change triggered the thawing of the permafrost, the dieback of the Amazon, unchecked boreal forest fires, a mass coral reef die-off, and the disruption of the circulation pattern in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Wood Mackenzie, the energy research consultancy.
The Earth’s seas and forests naturally absorb only 18 GtCO2 per year. Currently we’re emitting 48 GtCO2 per year from industry. The implication, according to Wood Mackenzie, is that renewables and engineered carbon capture are nowhere close to slowing down CO2 emissions.
THE FRONT PAGES TODAY
Mistral raises record €3bn as Europe strains to keep pace in AI race – FT
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs worth $27.6 billion take effect as trade rift with U.S. deepens – CNBC
Altman sees revenge of “idea guy” – Axios
Young people are obsessed with this simple retirement-savings formula – WSJ
Israel left-wing leader Golan pledges to end wars after October election – Bloomberg
China’s surging exports loom over Trump’s talks with Xi – NYT
Billionaire Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s no-prenup divorce could cost him painful 50-50 split – NY Post
ONE MORE THING
Help wanted: Snake that can do opera. Must have people skills.
Spare some sympathy for a moderately sized brown boa constrictor named Nala. She came this close to a starring role in the Met’s latest production of “Così fan Tutte,” which reimagines the Mozart opera by setting it in Coney Island. Nala lost the role to Princess, a “big sun-glow boa constrictor who is yellow-peach,” according to Zoe Ziegfeld, a carnival performer-turned-opera actor who is the production’s snake handler. Princess is a larger snake with a better visual presence on stage, the AP reports. In auditioning a snake, Ziegfeld looks each one in the eye, face-to-face, to evaluate the snake’s demeanor. “I need to know that the animal is comfortable with people and with what we are doing,” Ziegfeld said. “She is a wonderful snake.” (Nala will become Princess’s understudy.)
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