Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says he wishes he were 26 again because the opportunities post-ChatGPT ‘are so much more powerful’

Brian Chesky , the cofounder and CEO of short-term rental giant Airbnb , once thanked his lucky stars for building his business at an opportune moment; When he was a 26-year-old scaling his business back in 2008, Silicon Valley was teeming with opportunity: the first iPhone had just launched, Facebook was taking off, and YouTube was all the rage.

But in the corner of his mind, he actually wishes he could turn back his biological clock and be a 20-something entrepreneur in the current AI era.

“Until the launch of generative AI, ChatGPT, I said ‘Thank god I was born the time I did, because now is a tougher time,’” Chesky recently said on the Silicon Valley Girl podcast.

“And then post-ChatGPT, part of me said, ‘I wish I was 26 again.’” “Because actually, as amazing as Airbnb is, if I was 26, I could probably do something just as cool.

Because the tools now are so much more powerful.” Brian Chesky says if he were a new founder today, he’d launch an ‘AI Disney’ The 45-year-old admitted he isn’t sure what he would do in today’s AI era if he were the same age that he was when he cofounded the $95.8 billion rental company.

But he threw out a few ideas.

Chesky noted an interest in transforming education and health with the tech, as well as the potential of building an “AI Disney.” Beyond building chatbots, he foresees AI transforming the storytelling industry.

And the tools are already hitting movie theaters and streaming sites; Netflix used generative AI for a scene in sci-fi show El Eternauta , and for the first time ever the Cannes Film Festival featured a full-length AI-generated feature film Hell Grind in May of this year.

Chesky sees the presence of AI in visual mediums only continuing to grow.

The Airbnb cofounder also predicted that hundreds of giant companies like Anthropic will emerge in the future, but there will also be “tens of millions” of small businesses that spring up thanks to AI.

Now, all it takes is a handful of people to start a company—something that “was inconceivable before,” Chesky said.

Airbnb did not have further comment to share with Fortune.

Chesky says it hasn’t been easier to build a business in 20 years While Chesky sees AI as a powerful new tool for entrepreneurs, he acknowledged that many workers see the technology as an unmovable force thrust upon their careers.

But he argues that workers don’t have to be passive participants in the AI revolution—they can use the same technology to build something of their own.