Airbnb Names Meta's Llama Architect Ahmad Al-Dahle As CTO - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Hails Move To Bring AI Into Travel

On Wednesday, Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ:ABNB) named former Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) generative AI leader Ahmad Al-Dahle as its new chief technology officer.

Airbnb Taps Veteran AI Leader To Drive Technology Strategy

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced the appointment in a post on X, calling Al-Dahle one of the world's top AI experts and highlighting the company's belief that pairing strong design with frontier technology can improve how people experience travel.

"I'm often asked about our AI strategy," Chesky wrote. "We believe pairing great design with frontier technology will help us improve the way people experience travel."

In a blog post, Chesky said Al-Dahle is joining Airbnb at a critical moment as technology increasingly shapes how people interact with the world, sometimes pulling them away from real-life experiences rather than enhancing them.

From Apple And Meta To Airbnb's AI Vision

Al-Dahle joins Airbnb from Meta, where he founded and led the company's Generative AI group following the launch of ChatGPT. He oversaw the development of Llama, a family of open-source AI models that has surpassed one billion downloads and spawned tens of thousands of derivative models.

Before Meta, Al-Dahle spent years at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), where he worked on core technologies behind the iPhone's display and multitouch systems. He also contributed to multiple Apple devices, including the first Apple Watch and later led AI efforts for Apple's autonomous vehicle project.

Sam Altman, AI Leaders Praise Move

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman welcomed the appointment, saying Airbnb represents a rare blend of design and engineering excellence.

"Companies that are the furthest from AI—like travel and experiences—are quite interesting," Altman wrote on X, adding that bringing AI into Airbnb's platform could significantly improve the product.

Several AI industry leaders, including Nvidia's AI developer team, Meta's Yann LeCun and Google DeepMind research chief Oriol Vinyals, also congratulated Al-Dahle.

Focus On Human-Centered AI In Travel

In his own post, Al-Dahle said he was drawn to Airbnb's mission of using technology to connect people to real places and real experiences.

"The question now is how to apply [AI] to products people love," he wrote. "No one does this better than Brian Chesky."

Price Action: Airbnb shares closed Wednesday at $132.79, down 5.2% with the stock edging slightly lower to $132.70 in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro.

ABNB stock scores low on Momentum in Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings, with a favorable price trend in the short, medium and long terms.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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