Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky Launches AI Lab Focused on User-Interface Design
Brian Chesky is funding an early-stage artificial intelligence venture while remaining CEO of Airbnb. The lab will develop models with an emphasis on design and interaction rather than text chatbots.
skift.comAirbnb Inc. Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky is starting a new artificial intelligence lab, according to several people familiar with the matter. Chesky plans to create an AI venture to develop artificial intelligence models and is considering a focus on user interaction and design.
He is in the early stages of funding the lab, one person said, and the details could change. Chesky will remain CEO of Airbnb. He will not serve as chief executive of the new lab, one person said. Chesky co-founded Airbnb nearly 20 years ago after studying design in college.
In recent years, Chesky has often said AI applications for travel and e-commerce require a rich user interface rather than the kind of text-based chatbots popularized by OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. Unlike online travel rivals Expedia Group Inc. , Airbnb has not partnered with OpenAI to create a plug-in within ChatGPT, as Chesky has said the AI startup’s tools aren’t robust enough.
Representatives for Chesky and Airbnb declined to comment. Chesky is in the midst of transforming Airbnb into a “do-it-all” travel app, including new add-on services that he hopes could eventually bring in $1 billion or more in revenue a year. Airbnb employees have embraced AI coding tools to help accelerate the expansion, with new business pilots spun up in weeks rather than years, Chesky said in an interview last month.
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