Daily Recap: Tech — 29 October 2026

Technology news today centers on how platforms and governments are trying to shape the next phase of digital markets: tighter rules for who gets access, bigger bets on artificial intelligence, and fresh pressure on consumer platforms to turn new tools into revenue. At the same ti...

Canada says it will invest up to $1.6 billion in Cohere as the AI company raises a major funding round. Prime Minister Mark Carney presents the move as a strategic effort to back a domestic AI champion, underscoring how governments increasingly treat advanced AI companies as national economic and technological assets.

Ofcom sets out options for enforcing the UK’s planned social media ban on under-16s, recommending age checks that can verify whether a user is at least 16. The methods under consideration include photo ID, digital identity services, banking-based checks and facial age estimation ahead of the policy’s expected start next year.

Google is expanding ads in AI-powered search, rolling out sponsored results in AI Mode to more countries and testing additional ad placements. The changes also extend across AI Overviews, while advertisers can continue using existing Google Ads tools, showing how the company is moving to monetize generative search more broadly.

Polymarket halts international trading after a vendor-related breach drains funds from some user accounts. The platform places its exchange into a restricted state while it investigates, highlighting the continuing security risks tied to third-party providers and the operational fragility that can quickly disrupt crypto-linked services.

DeepSeek and Moonshot AI reportedly use outputs from OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra to train newer models, focusing attention on distillation as a fast-moving tactic in AI development. The report raises fresh questions about how companies leverage stronger models to build more efficient systems and how model makers police that behavior.

Xbox chief Asha Sharma says console demand still exceeds available supply even as Microsoft reports falling Xbox revenue. She ties the hardware situation to the broader games and PC business and says the company is working to put more consoles in players’ hands, including through an expanded refurbishment program.

Amazon is adding more voice-driven shopping functions to Alexa, expanding the assistant’s ability to manage subscriptions, billing requests, lists and registries. Users can now edit items and move them between shopping lists or gift registries, part of Amazon’s broader effort to make Alexa more useful for everyday commerce.

FromSoftware delays The Duskbloods, its Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, to 2027. The game had been expected in 2026, and the company does not provide a specific new launch date, marking a notable slip for a high-profile release tied to Nintendo’s next-generation hardware plans.