Never had to cut staff to buy more AI tokens, says Affirm CEO as it rolls out AI underwriting

Summary

Max Levchin, Affirm founder and CEO, discusses Affirm's new AI underwriting model, which he says can approve more borrowers while maintaining or improving loss rates. He expresses broad techno-optimism about AI, arguing it can drive scientific and underwriting breakthroughs and improve productivity without requiring staff cuts. He also explains how transformer-based AI lets the company analyze credit-report details that traditional models ignore.

• Affirm launched a new AI underwriting model aimed at expanding credit access.
• Max Levchin says the model uses 15 years of AI and machine learning work.
• He says Affirm can approve more loans while keeping loss rates same or better.
• Levchin is broadly optimistic on AI's scientific and productivity potential.
• He says Affirm has not cut staff to fund AI token usage.
• He argues AI will not replace human underwriters but complement them.
• He highlights transformer models' ability to use unstructured credit-report footnotes.