Airbnb plans to make use of AI, together with its GamePlanner acquisition, to create the ‘final concierge’

In November, Airbnb acquired a stealth AI firm launched by Siri’s co-founder, known as GamePlanner.AI. The deal valued the secretive startup at round $200 million, in accordance with stories. Although the internet hosting firm didn’t telegraph its plans for GamePlanner on the time, Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky right this moment shared a high-level overview of Airbnb’s bigger plans for AI, saying that it deliberate to accel on the “application layer” of AI, constructing one of many “most innovative 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 an alternative, the corporate believes it will possibly create a brand new interface for accessing trendy AI fashions. That’s one thing the GamePlanner acquisition might assist with.

“…Though the [AI] models are very powerful, the interface is really not an AI interface. It’s the same interface as in the 2000s,” Chesky advised traders on the corporate’s fourth-quarter earnings name. “It’s a typical, classical web interface. So we feel like the models, in a sense, are probably underutilized,” he stated. “Take your phone and look at all the icons on your phone. Most of those apps have not fundamentally changed since the advent of generative AI. So what I think AI represents is the ultimate platform shift,” the CEO continued.

After the web’s creation, the rise of cellular know-how lifted Airbnb’s enterprise, however AI goes to vary issues as soon as once more, Chesky believes. “This is also a shift in power. It’s a shift in behavior,” he stated.

Airbnb plans to leverage AI know-how and significantly generative AI to offer a extra personalised expertise for its customers, the exec advised traders.

“Imagine an app that you feel like knows you — it’s like the ultimate concierge. An interface that is adaptive and evolving and changing in real-time, unlike no interface you’ve ever seen before. That would allow us to go from a single vertical company to a cross-vertical company,” Chesky added.

Whether or not or not Airbnb can ship on these ambitions, after all, stays to be seen. Whereas Chesky paints an image of an evolution of the Airbnb consumer interface, powered by AI, right this moment’s AI programs are sometimes nonetheless troublesome to make use of and have a nasty behavior of returning false info by 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 change into extra correct beneath 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 a few months ago, but it surely 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 offered to Apple), and Siamak Hodjat. In a press release launched on the time of the acquisition, Airbnb steered that the GamePlanner staff would assist to speed up the corporate’s AI initiatives by integrating its tooling into the Airbnb platform.