Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is backing a new artificial intelligence lab, Bloomberg reported Wednesday — his first direct foray into the global AI race. According to people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously, Chesky plans to develop AI models with a focus on user interaction and design, an area he has long argued is underserved by existing frontier products. He is in the early stages of funding the lab and details could still change. Chesky will remain Airbnb’s CEO and will not lead the new venture himself; a separate executive will run the lab. Representatives for both Chesky and Airbnb declined to comment.
Chesky has been a vocal critic of current AI interfaces. Unlike travel rivals Expedia and Booking Holdings, Airbnb has not built a ChatGPT plugin, with Chesky citing existing tools as insufficiently robust for the rich, visually driven experience he believes travel and e-commerce apps require. His proximity to the frontier runs deep: he met Sam Altman through Y Combinator in 2006, has met regularly with Altman to advise on managing a hypergrowth company, and reportedly played a role in brokering Altman’s return to OpenAI after the board dismissed him in late 2023. Despite his skepticism of available models, Airbnb has embraced AI coding tools internally — Chesky said last month that new business pilots can now be stood up in weeks rather than years — as part of his push to turn Airbnb into a do-it-all travel platform targeting over $1 billion in annual revenue from new add-on services. Airbnb shares posted an initial gain on the news before pulling back slightly.