Detecting the Good and the Bad With AI: Airbnb’s Naba Banerjee

**Shervin Khodabandeh** (0:02)
Machine learning can detect fraudulent activity, but it may also miss good behavior. Find out how one platform company manages these risks and trade-offs on today's episode.

**Naba Banerjee** (0:14)
I am Naba Banerjee from Airbnb, and you are listening to Me, Myself, and AI.

**Sam Ransbotham** (0:20)
Welcome to Me, Myself, and AI, a podcast on artificial intelligence and business. Each episode, we introduce you to someone innovating with AI.
I'm Sam Ransbotham, Professor of Analytics at Boston College. I'm also the AI and Business Strategy Guest Editor at MIT Sloan Management Review.

**Shervin Khodabandeh** (0:38)
I'm Shervin Khodabandeh, Senior Partner with BCG, and one of the leaders of our AI business. Together, MIT SMR and BCG have been researching and publishing on AI since 2017
Interviewing hundreds of practitioners and surveying thousands of companies on what it takes to build and to deploy and scale AI capabilities, and really transform the way organizations operate.

**Sam Ransbotham** (1:04)
Today, Shervin and I are speaking with Naba Banerjee, Director of Trust, Product, and Operations at Airbnb. Naba, thanks for joining us.

**Naba Banerjee** (1:12)
Thank you. A pleasure to be here.

**Sam Ransbotham** (1:14)
I think most people know Airbnb, but maybe tell us a brief overview of the company and what you do.

**Naba Banerjee** (1:22)
Airbnb stands for a place which fosters connection and belonging. Millions and millions of hosts open up their homes to complete strangers, and you and I and our families get to travel to an exotic destination.
Instead of staying at a hotel, you actually get to truly immerse yourself in the local culture. At times, if you're really lucky, you get to stay at the house of a host and actually experience hosting as it's meant to be, thereby creating and fostering connection and belonging. And in this world that is increasingly becoming insular and connection is becoming a rare thing, I am so glad to be part of a company that is trying to create more connection.
And what my team does, the Trust and Safety team in Airbnb, is along the entire customer journey, right from the time that you create an account on Airbnb, throughout the journey. At times, it is possible that something could go wrong. A fake account could get created or your account could get taken over. The listing you're trying to stay at could be a fake listing. The reviews you're looking at may not be exactly genuine. But our job is to make sure that you can focus on your magical stay. The host can focus on being that perfect host. And we try to anticipate some of these risks and we minimize the risk of those kind of issues from happening. And using technology and data to enable that magical user journey is what my team does.

**Sam Ransbotham** (2:48)
I think we all hear headlines where something goes wrong. I mean, how much goes wrong in the course of the gazillions of transactions that you do?

**Naba Banerjee** (2:58)
That's a great question. In 2021, we had around 70 million trips that happened on Airbnb. And less than 0.1% of those trips resulted in a host or a guest reporting potentially an issue that happened in that stay.
And when our team went in and investigated and actually looked at where real harm happened, or somebody had to be removed from the platform, that number is even smaller. I know that even one bad incident is probably too bad and should not be happening. But in the bigger scale of things, what you come back to realize is majority of the people are actually good. 99.9% of people are meaning to just go about their daily business, enjoy a great stay, or be a great host.
But sometimes, that very rare occasion when that bad thing happens, we want to make sure that we reduce the risk of that. If you really look at where a person is causing harm to another person, those incidents are like a fraction of a fraction of a fraction. But when we talk about safety, we are looking at a carbon monoxide gas leak. It could be slip and fall. It could be property damage where glass broke and you probably had a stain on your carpet. We are also looking at those kinds of issues.

**Shervin Khodabandeh** (4:13)
What I'm hearing from what you're saying is your role is, number one, a good role, you're the protector of the good and the warder offer of evil, right?

**Naba Banerjee** (4:27)
I love that. You should be part of our branding team.

**Shervin Khodabandeh** (4:29)
This is a good thing, right? It's a very purposeful role.
And the second part of it is you're talking about microscopically small incidents.