Happy Monday! I spent this week keeping up with the latest AI / tech releases and updates so you don't have to. Here are the 4 things I found most interesting.
An OpenAI engineer was charged with hiding a recorder in the company's executive conference room.
Prosecutors say Abdulrahman Alfozan plugged a thumb-sized recording device into a TV in the room around September 28, and staff found it on September 30 wrapped in toilet paper. He was arrested on October 9, fired the same day, and charged with trying to intercept oral communications, which carries up to five years in prison. OpenAI says it has no sign he accessed model weights, source code or customer data.
A GitHub repo that lets your AI agent reverse engineer any app has over 330,000 stars.
REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) is an MCP server that plugs your coding agent into tools for inspecting native binaries, Electron and JavaScript apps, .NET assemblies and websites, including Ghidra, Hopper or IDA for native code. You ask how a feature in some app works, and the agent traces the code, shows its evidence and builds a version for your own project. It's MIT-licensed, and the README says it's for lawful research and interoperability on software you're authorized to examine.
Tesla finally revealed the new Roadster, and the top versions have SpaceX-linked thrusters.
On October 15 Tesla showed the Roadster it first teased in 2017, with the base Performance trim doing 0-60 mph in under 1.6 seconds and over 300 miles of range, about half the 620 miles promised back then. The Thrust and invite-only Rocket versions add cold-gas thrusters, and Tesla posted a clip of the car doing a flip. There's no price yet, reservations are $50,000, and Musk says production comes in "2028, actually."
One hacker used AI agents to break into more than 100 company websites for about $50 a hack.
Security firm NorForge says a Chinese-speaking attacker has been running an open-source agent platform called Cairn against online shops since September 25, and Deere and SharkNinja confirmed to Reuters that they were hit. Researchers estimate the whole campaign cost about $5,000 in tokens, with the agents apparently running on Claude Code and DeepSeek's cheap V4.1 Flash model. NorForge only found it because the operators left their control panels exposed online.
Those were the biggest updates on my radar this week.
On My Mind
I've just started my Japan trip with 4 days in Osaka, and taking time off work feels amazing! It's great to see how far you've come, especially when you have your own "benchmarks" to compare against. I came here last year thanks to my dad, and we spent 2 weeks together, which was amazing. But I remember seeing certain things and holding back to be responsible and not throw money away (not that we're doing that now, but yeah). Now that I'm spending my own money, I'm much more comfortable with my choices, and it feels great.
I guess the side effect of being in the "unemployed" space is that I always feel like I'm going to fall off by taking time off or slacking. Or that I'm not made for this. I try not to think about it, but at the end of the day it all comes back to me and my actions, and I know I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn. If you've been carrying that same voice around, maybe it's just proof you care about where you're headed.
More from me!
My last post: There are less than 90 days left this year, and that's enough to turn things around if you actually stay consistent. Check it out
Tool of the week: The voice tool I use every day to prompt AI, on my laptop and my phone. Just clicking the link supports me! :)
Stop typing AI prompts. Start talking.
You think 4x faster than you type. So why are you typing prompts? Wispr Flow turns your voice into ready-to-paste text inside any AI tool. Speak naturally, tangents and all, and Flow cleans it up. Available on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android.
Hit reply and tell me what you'd want me to cover next, I'd love to hear it.
Have a great week, do more!
Volkan