Airbnb CEO Hints at Generative AI Plans Around Acquisition of Adam Cheyer-Founded Startup GamePlanner.AI
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky laid out the company’s generative AI roadmap during in a call about the company’s fourth-quarter earnings this week. The outline for how Airbnb plans to focus on the “application layer” of generative AI suggests it will involve technology from the recently acquired GamePlanner.AI, co-founded by Siri and Bixby predecessor Viv Labs creator Adam Cheyer and Siri and Viv executive Siamak Hodjat.
Airbnb Generative AI Gameplan(ner)
“While we’ve been using AI across our service for years, we believe we can become a leader in developing some of the most innovative and personalized AI interfaces in the world,” Chesky said in the call. “In November, we accelerated our efforts with the acquisition of GamePlanner.AI, a stealth AI company led by the co-founder and original developer of Siri. With these critical pieces in place, we’re now ready to expand beyond our core business.”
Airbnb acquired GamePlanner.ai for a reported $200 million despite the 12-person startup still being in stealth. It was Airbnb’s first acquisition since going public in 2019. Chesky explained that the company’s focus would not be on creating its own large language models (LLMs). Instead, the company intends to leverage existing LLMs from the likes of OpenAI and Google for their projects. Airbnb wants to make a new adaptive interface for accessing generative AI models and personalizing them into a kind of “concierge” that can evolve and change to meet the needs of a user. He compared AI to the shift to mobile for the company in terms of its importance to the business model.
GamePlanner.AI had little to share with the public before the acquisition. The startup was developing something at the intersection of AI and design to improve interactive digital features, and the name implies video game work, but that’s about it. Cheyer has been open about how his vision for AI has long included the kind of expansive abilities now available with generative AI, as he explained to Voicebot founder Bret Kinsella in a podcast. Joining Airbnb may help him achieve more of those goals.
Airbnb has already tested some AI use cases, such as automatically generating review summaries. GamePlanner.AI could aid the integration of more AI capabilities. Of course, hallucinations and inaccuracies may still pose a problem for any upcoming generative AI products from Airbnb, but Chesky laid out his ambitions for how generative AI models can transform Airbnb and its service. Notably, Airbnb’s stock rose on the upbeat earnings report.
“So, what I think AI represents is the ultimate platform shift. You know, we had the internet, we had mobile. Airbnb really rose during the rise of mobile. And the thing about a platform shift, as you know, is it’s also a shift in power. It’s a shift of behavior,” Chesky said. “And I think with AI and the work we’re doing around AI interfaces, I think that’s what you should expect of us. We’re not going to talk specifically on this call about the specific products and services we’re going to be offering, but you will see some very big announcements later this year. And as you know, we did an acquisition of Game Planner AI. It was from the creator series. And that was just accelerating the efforts we were already endeavoring on.”
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