Test Issue 16
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky isn’t afraid of artificial intelligence displacing jobs. In fact, he thinks it’ll create more of them — particularly in the world of entrepreneurship.
Since ChatGPT started gaining popularity last winter, tech icons from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban have admitted they’re worried that AI will replace human workers in just about every industry.
But they’re forgetting something, Chesky recently told the “This Week in Startups” podcast: We don’t even know what kinds of jobs it’ll create.
“It’s easier to imagine what jobs will be displaced than what jobs would be created,” Chesky said. “That [would] require us to conceive of what doesn’t exist.”
AI is already making Airbnb’s software engineers more efficient, Chesky said, with 30% of day-to-day tasks that could be handled by ChatGPT-like tools within the next six months. This doesn’t mean those engineers’ jobs necessarily are at risk, he said, arguing the saved time could allow them to focus on harder, more personalized projects.
Computer scientists aren’t the only potential beneficiaries, he said. As AI evolves, you’ll be able to tell chatbots in plain English what you want in a website and technology will build it for you, no coding languages required, the Airbnb CEO said.
“I think this is going to create millions of startups ... entrepreneurship is going to be a boon,” Chesky said. “Anyone can essentially do the equivalent of what software engineering only allowed you to do five years ago.”