US House committees probe Airbnb over use of Chinese AI model powering customer service

Two Republican-led House committees—the Homeland Security Committee and the House China Select Committee—jointly sent letters to Airbnb and Anysphere CEOs requesting information about their use of AI models developed by Chinese companies, why they chose those models, and communications with Chinese AI model providers. The letters were signed by Republican chairs John Moolenaar and Andrew Garbarino. Lawmakers indicated that company employees may be summoned for an in-person briefing; they cited concerns about national security risks from sharing broad data with Chinese AI firms, which may offer cheaper, open-source tools and rely on models trained under China’s censorship regime with potential vulnerabilities.

Airbnb announced an option for guests to share their Airbnb profile with other travelers after booking an experience. The feature also allows users who have taken the same tours to message one another directly, with privacy safeguards that require the recipient to accept a message request before the conversation can continue.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company did not integrate its online travel app with OpenAI's ChatGPT because the tools were not yet ready. He said Airbnb relies on Alibaba's Qwen model, calling it very good, fast, and cheap, and noted that while the company uses OpenAI's latest models, they are not used heavily in production because faster and cheaper options exist.