AI news on October 29, 2026

1. 0107:13 UTC

   Payment Asia introduces two AI products for SMEs

   2 outlets · first: Pr Newswire Product launch Mostly press releases

   Machine summary Payment Asia Group announced on October 29, 2026 that it is introducing two AI products, the Merchant Health Index and the ARCS Marketing Platform, which the company says expand its AI capabilities for small and medium-sized businesses. The company describes MHI as an AI-powered framework that turns business and transaction data into business insights, and says its strategy is to make enterprise-grade intelligence accessible to smaller merchants.

   1. In a company press release, Payment Asia Group said on October 29, 2026 that it is rolling out two AI tools: the Merchant Health Index (MHI), along with the ARCS Marketing Platform.
   2. The company describes MHI as an AI-powered merchant intelligence framework that turns business and transaction information into business insights with a forward-looking view of merchant health.
   3. According to the announcement, MHI draws on pre-onboarding inputs such as compliance records and business registration details, and on post-first-transaction signals including website activity and transaction behavior.
   4. Payment Asia presents MHI as a showcase of its "More than Payment" strategy, which the company says extends its role beyond payments into intelligence, tools, partnerships, and support.
   5. Paul Tang, COO of Payment Asia, said AI is "becoming a strategic growth engine, moving decisively from experimentation into business operations" (company press release).

   Reported by Pr Newswire and Macau Business.

   • ARCS Marketing Platform
   • Merchant Health Index (MHI)
   • Payment Asia Group

2. 0200:16 UTC

   NYT Cooking tests AI recipe editor without an off switch

   2 outlets · first: niemanlab.org Product launch

   Machine summary The New York Times is testing an AI feature in its NYT Cooking app that suggests ingredient and equipment substitutions, rescales servings and adapts steps to a cook's tools, according to The Verge. Senior editor Genevieve Ko announced it on October 23, 2026; the tool is currently available to Cooking subscribers on iOS, customized results stay private, and Ko said there is no way to disable the feature at this time.

   1. NYT Cooking senior editor Genevieve Ko announced the AI recipe modification feature on Friday, October 23, 2026, according to The Verge.
   2. The tool suggests ingredient and equipment substitutions, rescales recipes to any servings, and adapts steps to a cook's pans and utensils; in the example given, it advised adding baby spinach later in the process because it wilts faster than kale.
   3. Customized recipes produced by the feature stay private and cannot be published or shared through the app, The Verge reports.
   4. The feature is being released gradually while the New York Times monitors its performance; it is available to all Cooking subscribers on iOS, with broader availability said to be coming "soon."
   5. Asked by a reader whether the feature could be turned off, Ko replied "No, not at this time" and said the tool is "completely optional to use."

   Reported by The Verge and niemanlab.org.

   • The Verge
   • Hacker News
   • iOS
   • Nieman Lab
   • NYT Cooking

3. 0314:06 UTC

   Anthropic left latest revenue figures blank in IPO filing, Eisman says

   2 outlets · first: CNBC

   Machine summary Key facts from the reports:

   1. Eisman said he believes frontier algorithm models are using fear around the technology to build a regulatory barrier against cheaper products and to obscure weakening fundamentals.
   2. Eisman referred to research provided to him indicating a revenue-to-equipment-expense ratio of 2.08 during the second quarter and 1.7 during the third quarter.
   3. Eisman called it "impossible" for the technology sector to be siloed from the broader equity market and economy

   Reported by CNBC and Seeking Alpha.

   • Anthropic
   • frontier algorithm models

4. 0413:29 UTC

   Coverage recordCNBC: “Banks and healthcare firms are outbidding tech for software talent, major recruiter says”

   2 outlets · first: CNBC

   Reports ran between 13:29 and 15:30 UTC on Oct 29.

   The outlets that reported this event are listed with links to their reports; no summary of ours passed our automated checks for it, which says nothing about the event (how they work).

   Reported by CNBC and Quartz.

Each summary and its key facts are a machine summary of the reports linked under it; the outlets, times and counts come from those reports' own records. How a rundown is built.