In November, Airbnb acquired a stealth AI company called GamePlanner.AI, started by the co-founder of Siri. The deal reportedly values the secretive startup at about $200 million. Although the hosting company didn't call out its plans for GamePlanner at the time, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky today shared an overview of Airbnb's larger AI plans, saying, “Application layer He said that he plans to accelerate this. Utilizing AI, he builds one of the “most innovative AI interfaces ever created.”
Hyperbole aside, Chesky said Airbnb doesn't consider itself an AI infrastructure company, meaning it won't build its own large-scale language models and will rely on AI technologies from other companies, including OpenAI, Meta, and Google. I explained that it would be. Instead, the company believes that the latest he can create new interfaces to access AI models. The acquisition of GamePlanner could help with that.
“…However, [AI] Although the model is very powerful, the interface is not really an AI interface. It's the same interface as it was in the 2000s,” Chesky told investors during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. “This is a typical classic web interface. So we feel that the model is probably underutilized in some ways,” he said. “Pick up your phone and look at all the icons on your phone. Most of these apps have remained essentially unchanged since the advent of generative AI. So what does AI represent? I think this is the ultimate platform shift,” the CEO continued.
After the birth of the internet, Airbnb's business improved with the rise of mobile technology, but Chesky believes AI will change the game again. “This is also a change of power. It's a change of behavior,” he said.
Airbnb plans to leverage AI technology, specifically generative AI, to provide users with more personalized experiences, the executive told investors.
“Imagine an app that makes you feel like it knows you. It's like the ultimate concierge. An interface unlike anything you've ever seen, adaptable and evolving in real time. It's a changing interface. That way you can move from being a single vertical company to being a cross-cutting company,” Chesky added.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Airbnb can realize these ambitions. Chesky charts the evolution of his AI-powered Airbnb user interface, but today's AI systems are still often difficult to use and have a bad habit of returning false information through so-called hallucinations. . In other words, the AI bot will simply make up a story if it doesn't know the answer. Airbnb's plans to improve its application layer may not be achieved unless its AI models become more accurate internally.
The CEO declined to elaborate on specific AI products or services that the company plans to offer at this time, but said the company plans to make further announcements in the AI space later this year.
Airbnb acquired GamePlanner a few months ago, but it wasn't clear what exactly the secretive startup was doing beyond its connection to AI. Notably, GamePlanner was co-founded by AI pioneer Adam Cheyer, who also co-founded Siri (sold to Apple), and his Siamak Hodjat. In a statement released at the time of the acquisition, Airbnb indicated that the GamePlanner team will help accelerate its AI projects by integrating its tools into the Airbnb platform.