Klarna used an AI avatar of its CEO to deliver earnings, it said

Sebastian Siemiatkowski is leaning all the way into the idea that his buy-now-pay-later, IPO-bound startup Klarna is an AI company. When Klarna delivered updated quarterly earnings on Monday, it was his AI avatar (pictured above) that presented the highlights, according to the company’s YouTube video. Other than AI Siemiatkowski’s admission, it wasn’t obvious that this was AI. There were only a few subtle signs: AI Siemiatkowski didn’t blink as much as most humans do. The voice sync was good, but not perfect. The AI was also wearing a brown jacket that looked a lot like the one from a widely circulated corporate photo of his human self (though the shirt was different). Klarna, which is getting ready to debut as a public company, was using the updated financials to tout AI as a driving factor for hitting 100 million users. It credited its use of AI for a fourth consecutive profitable quarter, explaining that it “streamlined its workforce by ~40%,” the company said in its blog post, dr ... Read full article.