Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is launching a new AI lab to build his own models, with an early focus he's weighing on user interaction and design, according to people familiar with the plans. Chesky will stay on as Airbnb's CEO and won't run the lab, which is still in early funding stages, so details could shift. The move tracks with his long-running argument that AI for travel and e-commerce needs a rich user interface rather than the text-based chatbots from OpenAI and Anthropic, and it's why Airbnb, unlike rivals Expedia and Booking, has declined to build a ChatGPT plug-in. He's making the bet while reshaping Airbnb into a “do-it-all” travel app with add-on services he hopes could eventually pull in $1B or more a year.
