Airbnb just made one of its most important secret technologi
Source: Matt Weinberger
On Thursday, Airbnb releases Aerosolve, the tool it uses to help people figure out the best price for their Airbnb rooms and apartments, as a free download for developers to build into their own apps.
Aerosolve is a tool for what the industry calls "machine learning," where software and apps actually get smarter over time.
"We have been operating on the belief that enabling humans to partner with a machine in a symbiotic way exceeds the capabilities of humans or machines alone," Airbnb writes in a blog post.
The market for machine learning and artificial intelligence is growing tremendously ― Google uses machine learning with its new Google Photos to automatically recognize the pictures you upload; Microsoft's Cortana virtual assistant uses the technology to get more personalized to the user over time.
At Airbnb, machine learning works toward a different end.
All kinds of things can affect the price a user can ask for with a room rental. Is there a big concert or conference in town? Does the apartment have a lot of positive reviews? What neighborhood is it in? Are there good pictures?
That last one is particularly interesting, Airbnb says. The definition of "good picture" changes depending on whom you ask: Professional photographers "tend to prefer pictures of ornate, brightly lit living rooms," but real-life Airbnb customers "seem to prefer warm colors and cozy bedrooms."
These are all things Airbnb's under-the-hood algorithms have to process just to deliver a suggestion on a nightly room charge.
Aerosolve is what Airbnb came up with to process all that data. And Thursday it is made available under what we call "open source" ― a free download so developers can build their own smart recommendation engines based on the work Airbnb has already done with machine learning.
Aerosolve can even automatically figure out which neighborhoods are which on a map based on Airbnb listing data. And it's getting smarter all the time.
Airbnb refers to Aerosolve as "a machine-learning package built for humans," designed to be easier to use than other more complicated solutions.\
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