Airbnb Acquires Siri Creator's AI Startup for Under $200 Million

In a bid to elevate user experience on its platform, Airbnb acquired the 12-person startup GamePlanner.AI for just under $200 million, CNBC reported.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the acquisition provided Airbnb with a "travel concierge" for users' travel adventures, matching the right rooms and homes for each person's preferences. This was Airbnb's first buyout since 2019.

Gameplanner is led by Siri co-founder Adam Cheyer and Siamak Hodjat, taking the firm under "stealth mode" since its establishment in 2020.

A stealth company operates under the public sphere, either to protect intellectual property, avoid unwanted attention, or deter distractions.

The company is expected to work on "accelerating select AI projects and integrating their tools" into the platform.

Airbnb Enlists AI-powered Features

The acquisition follows Airbnb's introduction of the AI-enhanced Photo Tour toll that automatically organizes photos of listings by room for an easier room tour of the prospective rest area.

Another added feature was the new smart lock compatibility mode where hosts can connect their rooms to their accounts to generate unique passwords.

The home-sharing company has been using language models, computer vision models, and machine-learning tools to accommodate all customers on the site and app.

"AI will rapidly alter our world more than any other technology in our lifetime," Chesky said in a statement.

AI Integration for Customer Service

Since the start of the year, other travel companies have incorporated AI tools to improve customer service and user experience on their platforms.

Booking.com and Expedia have been reported to integrate AI into customer booking, generate itineraries, and suggest vacation locations.

Big tech wigs like Google have started investing hundreds of millions into another AI startup, Character.AI, in a bid to innovate its existing language models.

Even Amazon debuted a team dedicated to training an ambitious AI model bigger than OpenAI's GPT-4. The company has also partnered with other AI firms in the past few months.