Inside Story: OpenAI Fires 3 Security Researchers Amid Leak Investigation Involving External Audit Partner

Beating AI News Flash: OpenAI’s Head of Product and Platform Tibo Sottiaux announced Day 18 of the company’s 28-day product sprint, with multiple key updates: The Decisions API moved from public beta to general availability, enabling applications to quickly complete classification and next-step selection; OpenAI has transferred its cross-model API specification Open Responses to the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation, alongside a series of performance optimizations. New enterprise partnership progress was also revealed: Uber announced it is expanding ChatGPT Work from an initial 1,000-person pilot to over 30,000 employees globally, while its engineering team will continue using Codex. However, Sottiaux added a final note: “But yes… we’re resetting quotas today too!” The Day 17 quota reset had just been credited, and another round was scheduled for Day 18. He stated the new quota reset is expected to take effect before 1:00 AM Beijing Time on October 24, and will come with a minor, undisclosed update.

According to a report by the South China Morning Post, HSBC will roll out its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, HSBC RedCoin, in phases starting October 23, with the first batch targeting over 3.3 million users of Hong Kong’s payment app PayMe. Initially, RedCoin will only be accessible via PayMe and HSBC Hong Kong’s mobile banking app, supporting peer-to-peer transfers between PayMe users and payments to merchants. Users can activate their RedCoin wallets after updating the apps, with no minimum balance requirement or additional account needed. Lawrence Li, head of HSBC PayMe, said the first phase focuses on ensuring service stability, avoiding adding operational burdens for users, and building trust. HSBC previously conducted an internal pilot involving nearly 100 employees to test the full user flow and system integration. The bank plans to fully integrate RedCoin into its Hong Kong mobile banking app by the end of the year, and support users in subscribing to tokenized asset products including money market funds, with a minimum investment of HK$100. John O’Neill, managing director of digital assets and currency at HSBC, noted that stablecoins enable instant settlement for tokenized funds, reducing the time required for traditional investment settlements and lowering investment barriers. The launch comes as Hong Kong accelerates the development of its digital asset market.

Binance announced it will distribute cash dividends to holders of tokenized securities ASMLB and NOKB, which track ASML Holding (ASML) and Nokia (NOK), via its bStocks product. After deducting applicable withholding taxes, fees, and other costs, the net dividend will be reinvested to purchase additional or fractional shares of the underlying securities. Eligible users will receive distributions in the form of ASMLB or NOKB tokens. The eligibility snapshot is scheduled for 00:00 UTC on October 27. Binance will suspend the 1:1 conversion service between ASML and Nokia stocks and their corresponding bStocks tokens at 23:30 UTC on October 26, as well as ASMLB and NOKB token deposits and withdrawals. These services will resume after the dividend distribution is completed. Trading pairs NOKB/USDT and ASMLB/USDT remain unaffected. Binance reminded that bStocks are tokenized securities, which do not grant holders direct ownership of the underlying listed company’s stocks, and are only offered to eligible users in approved jurisdictions.

Bitcoin Core is revising its security vulnerability disclosure policy, as large language models (LLMs) have significantly lowered the threshold for discovering certain software flaws. Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot said Thursday on the Bitcoin Developers Mailing List that for vulnerabilities easily uncovered via simple LLM prompts, delayed disclosure no longer provides sufficient protection and instead delays the release of fix versions. Under the new policy, for easily discoverable vulnerabilities, Bitcoin Core will roll out fixes as quickly as possible for all still-maintained major versions, and release corresponding security advisories simultaneously. Other vulnerabilities will still be disclosed in phases based on severity: low-severity flaws will be made public two weeks after the major version containing the fix is released; medium and high-severity vulnerabilities are typically disclosed two weeks after the last affected version ends its maintenance. Critical vulnerabilities that severely impact Bitcoin’s core security will follow a separate process. AI-assisted security research is bringing new pressures to the Bitcoin ecosystem. This August, the Bitcoin Red Team reported nearly 5,000 potential issues found across 390 projects; Core Lightning developers also urged node operators to upgrade software or take it offline temporarily after receiving multiple AI-generated vulnerability reports. The policy adjustment aims to shorten the exposure window of easily exploitable vulnerabilities and accelerate the delivery of fix versions.

According to filings with the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC), Elon Musk injected $77 million into the super political action committee (super PAC) America PAC he supports in the first two weeks of October, bringing his total donations for this election cycle to over $445 million, making him one of the largest individual donors to a super PAC in U.S. political history. America PAC spent $43 million during the same period, ending with a cash balance of $46.5 million. Since August, the organization has allocated $43.2 million to voter outreach and get-out-the-vote efforts, and spent $8.8 million on digital media and text messaging services. The funds are primarily directed to key congressional races in states including Texas, Ohio, and Michigan, with spending on Texas Senate races being particularly prominent. Additionally, Musk donated $158 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which supports Republican Senate candidates, in September. As the U.S. midterm elections approach, both major parties are ramping up financial contributions; as of the end of the third quarter, Trump, the Republican Party, and congressional super PACs backing Republican candidates have raised a total of $2.1 billion, exceeding the $1.3 billion raised by Democratic-aligned organizations.

Trade.xyz announced on social media that the pre-IPO perpetual contract (IPOP) market for JIO is now live. Each JIO unit corresponds to one common share of Jio Platforms Limited, quoted in US dollars. Currently, JIO operates as a pre-IPO market reflecting expected share prices, and is set to convert to a standard XYZ perpetual contract after Jio Platforms’ IPO. Post-IPO, oracles will convert the underlying stock’s rupee price to US dollars at the prevailing USD/Indian rupee exchange rate. Jio Platforms provides digital connectivity and services in India.