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Airbnb has made its first acquisition as a public company, in a deal valued at just under $200 million, sources familiar with the deal told CNBC. The startup is called Gameplanner.AI, which has been in "stealth mode" since its founding in 2020. Startups in stealth mode operate out of the public eye for various reasons, such as to protect intellectual property or avoid distractions. Airbnb's news follows reports that Google is in talks to invest hundreds of millions into another AI startup, Character.AI, which in March raised a $150 million at a $1 billion valuation in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The startup lets people create virtual characters or chat with AI versions of celebrities like Elon Musk or Albert Einstein.

Persons: Airbnb, Gameplanner.AI, Adam Cheyer, Siri, Steve Jobs, Cheyer, Viv, Brian Chesky, Chesky's, Andreessen Horowitz, Elon Musk, Albert Einstein Organizations: CNBC, Apple, Viv Labs, Google

☆ Airbnb acquires AI startup GamePlanner.AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Figurines are seen in front of the Airbnb logo in this illustration taken February 27, 2022. GamePlanner.AI was co-founded by Adam Cheyer, who was also one of the founders of Apple's voice assistant Siri. The startup will add to Airbnb's existing set of AI technologies that include large language models, computer vision models and machine learning. "AI will rapidly alter our world more than any other technology in our lifetime," Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in the statement. Other travel companies, including Booking.com and Expedia have also made efforts to integrate AI to their existing technologies in an attempt to enhance customer-booking experiences and create more suitable itineraries and suggestions.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, GamePlanner.AI, Adam Cheyer, Siri, Brian Chesky, Priyamvada, Shilpi Majumdar Organizations: REUTERS, CNBC, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Ex-Apple engineer says Siri is way too clunky to ever be like ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ex-Apple engineer John Burkey told NYT that voice assistant Siri may never be as robust as ChatGPT. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT threaten to make voice assistant tech obsolete. John Burkey, an ex-Apple engineer who was tasked to improve Siri in 2014 and left the company in 2016, said that Siri's clunky design makes it difficult to add new features. Burkey's views on Siri come as the wildly popular AI chatbot ChatGPT — which now runs on GPT-4, its most advanced language model yet — threatens to make voice assistant tech obsolete with its impressive capabilities. Siri users have even taken notice, expressing their frustrations on Reddit with questions like "Why is Siri so stupid" and "is Siri getting dumber each year."

☆ Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana were 'dumb as a rock'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella said voice assistants like Siri and Alexa were "dumb as a rock." Nadella who raved about the voice assistants in 2016 saying "bots are the new apps," has changed his tune since then, the FT reported. "Whether it's Cortana or Alexa or Google Assistant or Siri, all these just don't work. According to Insider Intelligence analysis in 2018, just 2% of global consumers said they used Cortana as their primary voice assistant. Siri's co-creator Adam Cheyer told the FT that ChatGPT's ability to understand complex information makes existing voice assistants look stupid, saying "the previous capabilities have just been too awkward."

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