As of right now, the pirate AI has been improved and they now spend their money on upgrades to their ships (new abilities, armor, hp, damage, speed, etc). If the modders are interested, look at all of the research subjects that start with RESEARCHSUBJECT_PIRATE.
Beta 3 is going to include our brand new pirate mission system, which will allow you to give the pirates a mission to follow (seperate from the current bounty raids), for a price.
