Good morning. Turns out, Magnus Carlsen is about as good at chess as 143,000 randos.
In the largest online chess match ever held, dubbed “Magnus Carlsen vs. The World,” 143,000 people working together managed to draw the former world champion in a marathon 46-day game on Chess.com that ended yesterday. “Overall, ‘The World’ has played very, very sound chess from the start,” said Carlsen, who was heavily favored to win.
OK, but how would they do against 1 gorilla?
—Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Molly Liebergall, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman
Markets: Stocks ticked down yesterday, ending a six-day rally after some influential CEOs—including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon—warned that markets have grown too complacent about tariffs. But it was a spectacular day for Warby Parker, which climbed more than 15% after Google announced it’s partnering with the eyewear company on Google Glass (RIP) a new smart glasses device.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Klarna revealed that more customers are struggling with that pesky second part.
The Swedish fintech company, which allows shoppers to pay for their burritos and other items in installments, said this week that its consumer credit losses shot up to $136 million, 17% higher than in Q1 2024. The sign that BNPL might be further burdening increasingly debt-saddled Americans comes as more folks rely on it:
Klarna’s comparable revenue rose by 15%, to $701 million, in Q1, while its customer base swelled to over 100 million people.
A quarter of BNPL users are borrowing to pay for groceries, compared to just 14% a year ago, according to a recent LendingTree survey. The same survey found that 41% of BNPL borrowers struggle to repay loans on time, up from 34% last year.
Klarna assured that it is not alarmed by the rise in unpaid balances, saying that they are “still very low” as a share of its total lending, rising from 0.51% to 0.54%.
Plans derailed
Despite Klarna’s crown as the biggest BNPL player in the US (it recently became Walmart’s exclusive BNPL provider and inked a partnership with DoorDash), the company faces economic setbacks. It postponed a $15+ billion IPO it planned for earlier this year amid trade wars and the resulting economic uncertainty.
It also appears to be backpedalling on its embrace of AI:
In 2023 and 2024, Klarna froze hiring and laid off 22% of its staff, opting to deploy an AI agent that it claimed did the work of 700 customer service reps.
But, earlier this month, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said that the company began hiring (human) gig workers, since AI alone wasn’t enough to provide quality customer service.
Meanwhile, Uncle Sam is going easy on BNPL. The Trump administration recently ended enforcement of a Biden-era rule that called for BNPL to be regulated like credit cards, in stark contrast to the UK, which is looking to tame the “Wild West” industry.—SK
Yep, GenAI roles are growing—and fast. Indeed is digging into GenAI’s fast rise to popularity in their economic research report, AI at Work: Rise of the GenAI Consultant.
Here’s a sneak peek of the key points they break down in their report:
the rate at which US job postings mentioning GenAI went up year over year
the main industries where GenAI dominates job postings
the other industries where AI language has also surged
UK suspended trade talks with Israel over Gaza offensive. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the UK is suspending negotiations with Israel on a new free trade agreement due to Israel’s blockade of and new ground offensive in Gaza. The news came as several allies of Israel—including the UK, France, and Canada—increasingly denounce its expanding military operation in Gaza. A joint statement by the three allies threatened “further concrete actions” if Israel does not lift its aid restrictions. Meanwhile, the EU said it’s reviewing its trade deal with Israel amid the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza.
Google unveiled “AI mode” search option. Googling whether the twinge in your abdomen means you’re dying is about to look different. At its developers conference yesterday, Google said it’s rolling out a feature that answers search queries in the style of an AI chatbot conversation instead of with a list of links, signaling a vast departure from how the search engine has functioned for nearly 20 years. The AI mode is still just an option within Google’s regular search engine, but some observers predict it will eventually become the default method, given how much Google has invested in artificial intelligence to catch up to Microsoft and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Google CEO Sundar Pichai called AI mode “a total reimagining of search with more advanced reasoning.”
FDA will limit access to Covid booster shots. In a major policy shift, the FDA will no longer routinely approve annual Covid shots for most healthy people, the Trump administration said yesterday. Under the new guidelines, the FDA will continue to offer shots to adults 65 and older and high-risk younger people—but shots for other Americans will have to undergo more studies before they’re approved. Experts say the change is expected to limit the number of Americans who get a Covid shot each year. FDA officials argued that “one-size-fits-all” vaccines are outdated and that the new framework puts the US in line with other countries. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, was an early opponent of Covid shots.—AE
If you got a great deal on a cute little apartment in Catalonia this summer, no you didn’t. Spain’s Consumer Rights Ministry ordered Airbnb to remove more than 65,000 listings in the country, its latest attempt to deal with overtourism and a growing housing crisis.
The ministry said the listings violated short-term rental rules, like not including license numbers, using fake license numbers, or not specifying if the property was owned by an individual or a company. Spain had ordered Airbnb to scrap the listings in recent months, but Airbnb appealed the decision. Madrid’s high court sided with the government this week:
Airbnb said in a statement that it would continue to appeal the order, arguing that housing supply is to blame for a lack of affordable units for residents—not an increase in lodging options for tourists.
The list of rentals includes properties in popular tourist destinations like Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia, Valencia, the Basque Country, and the Balearic Islands.
Big picture: Spain and many other European countries are scrambling to address rising rents and housing shortages in popular cities, as well as quell anti-tourist protests that have sprung up around the region. About 321,000 homes in Spain had holiday rental licenses as of November 2024, up by 15% from four years prior.—MM
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It’s not about what AI Darth Vader said, it’s about who allegedly didn’t get a say in the bot’s creation: This week, SAG-AFTRA accused Llama Productions, a subsidiary of Fortnite-creator Epic Games, of violating labor agreements by implementing an AI-voiced character without consulting the actors union.
Luke, I am your AI companion. On Friday, Fortnite added a Darth Vader bot powered by Google’s Gemini 2.0 that converses with players in character, in the synthesized voice of the late James Earl Jones, whose estate gave full permission.
The union’s complaint with the National Labor Relations Board isn’t that Llama Productions replaced a human performer with AI, but that it “did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms,” despite signing a collective bargaining contract that required it, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. Epic hasn’t yet commented on the accusation.
Meanwhile…Fortnite players are coaxing one of the most iconic Hollywood voices to recite internet slop. Highlights include “hawk tuah,” “I am a puppy girl,” and “these…skibidi toilets, are they some new form of Rebel Alliance?” Gamers were initially getting AI Vader to drop f-bombs, but Fortnite promptly fixed that.
Zoom out: SAG-AFTRA has been striking for better AI protections for video-game voice actors for nearly a year.—ML
The downside to being Tesla’s CFO is you have to talk a lot on earnings calls and try to calm panicked investors. The upside is that you get paid enough to buy a small country.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja received a pay package of $139 million last year—more than most CEOs and the most for a chief financial officer since modern reporting began in 2006.
Taneja’s compensation, disbursed in October of last year, was tied to equity and stock awards, per the WSJ. The automaker’s stock soared following President Trump’s 2024 election but has since lost its mojo, dropping 9% so far this year as increased EV competition and CEO Elon Musk’s political involvement have put a dent in sales.
No tears were shed for Taneja, though. The CFO’s $139 million dwarfed the runner-up, Nikola CFO Kim Brady’s $86 million package in 2020. Nikola filed for bankruptcy this year.—AE
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Word Search: Each image in today’s Word Search is a clue for a one-word song title. Yes, it’s very fun. Play it here.
Hoosier trivia
The New York Knicks meet the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals tonight. The name “Pacers” seems a little random, but it is an homage to two sports other than basketball that have a rich history in Indiana. Can you name them?
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Horse racing (harness racing pacers) and motorsport (the pace car of the Indianapolis 500).
Word of the Day
Today’s Word of the Day is: mojo, meaning “magic power, or a quality that makes something successful.” Thanks to Matt from Downingtown, PA, for the suggestion. Submit another Word of the Day here.
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UK suspended trade talks with Israel over Gaza offensive. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the UK is 
Google unveiled “AI mode” search option. Googling whether the twinge in your abdomen means you’re dying is about to look different. At its developers conference yesterday, Google said it’s 
FDA will limit access to Covid booster shots. In a major policy shift, the FDA will 
Grow: A watering can that 
