Airbnb wants to use artificial intelligence to create a kind of “travel concierge”.
The accommodation platform Airbnb is strengthening its ambitions in artificial intelligence with the purchase of the new start-up from one of the inventors of Apple’s voice assistant Siri.
Airbnb did not name the purchase price, but according to information from the business broadcaster CNBC it was just under $200 million (around 184 million euros). It is not known what exactly the start-up Gameplanner.ai is working on – it was still in the so-called “stealth mode”, in which young companies operate under the radar, so to speak.
But the career of founder Adam Cheyer speaks for itself. He was one of the founders of the company behind Siri, which was purchased by Apple. After two years at the iPhone company, he worked with other Siri developers on the voice assistance software Viv. The company was bought by Samsung and became the basis for Apple’s voice assistant Bixby.
Airbnb wants to use artificial intelligence to create a kind of “travel concierge” in order to personalize the offer for users more. The platform, through which apartments and houses can be rented, competes with other similar services and the hotel industry.
Source: Stern
