Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wants to bring the power of ChatGPT to his travel platform, but he says the popular AI technology just isn’t ready for primetime yet.
“The [software development kit] wasn’t quite robust enough for the things we want to do,” Chesky said in an interview. He added that the company would “probably” want to integrate ChatGPT in the future, but for now, it’s not the right fit.
The comments come as Airbnb is rolling out its own new AI-powered features. The company just launched a personalized version of its chatbot that can handle tasks like canceling and changing user reservations. In another interview, Chesky revealed that this new chatbot was actually built using 13 different AI models, with a heavy reliance on a model from the Chinese tech giant Alibaba.
Despite his current hesitation, Chesky is a big believer in the future of AI. He said he expects the technology to spark a new “consumer app craze” over the next few years. He also stressed the importance of collaboration, saying that it will be “very, very difficult” for any one company to dominate every aspect of the AI revolution.
Chesky, a close friend of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, made it clear that while he’s excited about the potential of AI, he’s also being cautious and waiting for the technology to mature before fully embracing it on his platform.
