Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky to tech CEOs: You are responsible for giving AI a bad name as the products you are building are …

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky believes that the tech CEOs are partly responsible for AI’s bad name, arguing that the industry is building too many products for businesses instead of creating AI tools that ordinary people can use in their daily lives. Speaking in an interview on the Yahoo Finance podcast “Power Players with Brian Sozzi” earlier this week, Brian Chesky acknowledged AI backlash among Americans, stating that the Silicon Valley holds the answer to AI’s growing public perception problem.“I think part of it’s a narrative issue that we’re not talking about AI correctly,” he said. “But part of it is we need to actually be developing more products that just regular people can use and say, ‘I love AI because AI allows me to have a doctor on demand and I can’t have that. I can’t afford that.’ And so I think we need more regular things.”According to Chesky, AI should deliver practical benefits that people can experience directly instead of focusing mainly on enterprise software.

Airbnb CEO: Regular people do not like AI

During the interview, Brian Chesky said many startup founders are now avoiding consumer products in favor of enterprise software. He cited his own example stating that when he started Airbnb 18 years ago, more founders were then building products for everyday users. However, he said that in the latest batch of startups at Y Combinator, where he serves on the board, 159 out of 175 companies were focused on enterprise products rather than consumer applications.“It’s in Silicon Valley’s interest for us to develop consumer applications that improve people’s lives,” Chesky said.“You know why? Because regular people in the United States do not like AI. I’m making a generalization. But if you look at polling of AI, the concept of AI is not popular outside of Silicon Valley, and yet this is a technology that can help so many people’s lives.”