After a second-quarter earnings beat , Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky shared his thoughts on the company’s AI strategy, cautioning investors that AI chatbots can’t yet be thought of as the “new Google.” That is, AI chatbots, while potentially driving new leads to the travel and services business, aren’t entirely a replacement for the referrals that the dominant search engine brings.

At least not at this time.

“I think we’re still kind of feeling out the space,” the exec told investors on the Q2 earnings call. “The thing I want to caution is I don’t think that AI agents — I don’t think we should think of chatbots like Google — I don’t think we should think of them as the ‘new Google’ yet.”

This, Chesky explained, is because AI models aren’t “proprietary.”

“We also have to remember that the m

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