Brian Chesky’s new blueprint for Airbnb — and Silicon Valley
Semafor · Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson ·
The designer-turned-founder sees an opportunity in addressing AI-fueled isolation.
The Signal Interview
“When I came to Silicon Valley, we thought we were all making the world a better place,” Brian Chesky recalls, 19 years after he co-founded Airbnb. Now, he tells The CEO Signal, “Silicon Valley’s in a bubble, and society feels like AI is happening to them, not for them.”
Chesky is an unusual figure in California’s tech heartland. An industrial designer surrounded by mathematicians and engineers, he describes Silicon Valley as a nightclub he somehow snuck into as a 26-year-old when the bouncer wasn’t looking.