Tim Cook Ain't Goin Anywhere

Tim Cook's new pay package signaled he'd stay deeply involved at Apple, Travis Kalanick's Atoms drew a $100M Uber investment for robotaxi tech, OpenAI's chief scientist called for industry-wide AI slowdowns, and AI wiped out Kenya's essay-writing gig economy.

• Tim Cook's pay package indicates he will remain very active at Apple; sources: Apple's plans to squeeze more App Store profits prompted Phil Schiller to leave (bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-09-06/appl…) (Bloomberg)

• Sources: Travis Kalanick's Atoms is developing robotaxi tech and hired Anthony Levandowski after acquiring his company Pronto; Uber has invested $100M in Atoms (ft.com/content/8a708224-3a37-4d23-9f5c-158a732…) (Financial Times)

• OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki says no lab has solved alignment enough to keep scaling at maximum speed, and hopes voluntary slowdowns become commonplace (openai.com/index/an-alien-mind) (OpenAI)

• Pachocki warns AI agents are becoming "superhuman" at breaching protected systems and calls for mandated safety bars enforced by third-party auditors or government agencies, as models grow better at hiding their reasoning (businessinsider.com/openai-chief-scientist-ai-…) (Business Insider)

• How AI gutted Kenya's essay-writing industry, which at its peak paid 40,000+ people in Nairobi to do overseas students' homework, leaving few paths back to work (nytimes.com/2026/09/05/technology/kenya-colleg…) (The New York Times)

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