In November, Airbnb acquired a stealth AI agency launched by Siri’s co-founder, referred to as GamePlanner.AI. The deal valued the secretive startup at round $200 million, based on stories. Although the internet hosting firm didn’t telegraph its plans for GamePlanner on the time, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky as we speak shared a high-level overview of Airbnb’s bigger plans for AI, saying that it deliberate to accel on the “software layer” of AI, constructing one of many “most progressive AI interfaces ever created.”
Hyperbole apart, Chesky defined that Airbnb doesn’t see itself as an AI infrastructure firm — that means it’s not going to construct its personal massive language fashions, however will depend on AI applied sciences from others, like OpenAI, Meta and Google. As a substitute, the corporate believes it may well create a brand new interface for accessing trendy AI fashions. That’s one thing the GamePlanner acquisition might assist with.
“…Although the [AI] fashions are very highly effective, the interface is de facto not an AI interface. It’s the identical interface because the 2000s,” Chesky instructed traders on the corporate’s fourth-quarter earnings name. “It’s a typical, classical internet interface. So we really feel just like the fashions, in a way, are in all probability underutilized,” he stated. “Right here’s one other approach of claiming it. Take your telephone and take a look at all of the icons in your telephone. Most of these apps haven’t basically modified for the reason that introduction of generative AI. So what I feel AI represents is the final word platform shift,” the CEO continued.
After the web’s creation, the rise of cellular know-how lifted Airbnb’s enterprise, however AI goes to alter issues as soon as once more, Chesky believes. “[This] can also be a shift in energy. It’s a shift in habits. And so I feel this can be a zero-zero ballgame,” he stated.
Airbnb plans to leverage AI know-how and significantly generative AI to supply a extra personalised expertise for its customers, the exec instructed traders.
“Think about an app that you simply really feel like is aware of you — it’s like the final word concierge — an interface that’s adaptive and evolving and altering in real-time, not like no interface you’ve ever seen earlier than. That will enable us to go from a single vertical firm to a cross-vertical firm,” Chesky added.
Whether or not or not Airbnb can ship on these ambitions, in fact, stays to be seen. Although Chesky paints an image of an evolution of the Airbnb person interface, powered by AI, as we speak’s AI programs are sometimes nonetheless troublesome to make use of and have a foul behavior of returning false data by way of what are often called hallucinations. That’s, the AI bot will merely make issues up when it doesn’t know the reply. If the AI fashions don’t turn out to be extra correct below the hood, Airbnb’s plans for software layer enhancements might additionally fall quick.
The CEO stated he wouldn’t element particular AI services and products it plans to supply presently, however the firm will make extra bulletins later this yr on the AI entrance.
Airbnb acquired GamePlanner just a few months in the past, however it wasn’t clear precisely what the secretive startup did, past being tied to AI. Notably, GamePlanner was co-founded by AI pioneer Adam Cheyer, who co-founded Siri (which was bought to Apple), and Siamak Hodjat. In an announcement launched on the time of the acquisition, Airbnb steered that the GamePlanner workforce would assist to speed up the corporate’s AI tasks by integrating its tooling into the Airbnb platform.
