Sam Altman shares how Airbnb’s CEO helped OpenAI grow: Brian Chesky was 'almost always right'

Sam Altman said, as OpenAI company grew rapidly, (right) Airbnb's Brian Chesky became a close confidant. (Image credit: AFP)

Sam Altman has said that he heavily relied on advice from his friend and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky to grow OpenAI after ChatGPT became a global sensation.

In a joint interview with Chesky at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the OpenAI CEO said that “a lot of people” had come forward to help him once ChatGPT gained popularity in late 2022, but nobody pitched in except Chesky. “Everything just went crazy for me,” Altman said. “Brian was the person who would just sit down with me, for like three hours every other week, and give me a list and say, ‘Here’s the five things you got to do now. Here’s where you’re behind, here’s what you’re screwing up, here’s what you got to proactively do, here’s what you got to think about.’”

Five days after ChatGPT launched to the public, it exceeded 1 million users. In January 2023, the platform had 100 million monthly active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, CNBC Make It reported.

As the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence company grew rapidly, Chesky became a close confidant, Altman said. Chesky was “almost always right,” he added. “I learned to just always shut up and follow the advice.”

Elaborating on how Chesky's advice impacted OpenAI’s business, Altman said that his friend instructed him on who to hire and how to “map” out the company’s strategy. And recently, Chesky pointed out that Altman was “probably not thinking enough about” the political consequences of the company’s generative AI technology, the OpenAI CEO added.

More recently, Chesky told him that he was “probably not thinking enough about” the political consequences of the company’s generative AI technology, Altman added.