Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s X account was hijacked in an AI slop hack pushing crypto tokenization

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky's X account was hacked on Monday, posting AI-generated content promoting real-world asset tokenization, a crypto concept. The posts, flagged as 100% AI-generated by detection tools, were deleted after X secured the account. The incident highlights the growing problem of AI-generated slop on social media.

Airbnb https://fortune.com/company/airbnb/ cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky appears to have been the target of a cyberattack, a source with knowledge of the situation tells Fortune . On Monday, Chesky’s X account shared a multi-post thread setting out a bullish view on “real-world asset tokenization,” a term from the crypto world that describes converting traditional assets like stocks into digital tokens. “I’ve been quietly keeping an eye on real-world asset tokenization for a while now,” the account wrote https://stocktwits.com/news-articles/markets/equity/airbnb-brian-chesky-blockchain-asset-tokenization/cZZbAv4R7pL in the now-deleted series of tweets. “Most of it is noise. But underneath the noise, something real is happening.” Chesky is an active user of X, where he routinely shares product updates, earnings commentary, and lessons from building Airbnb with his more than 1.2 million followers. He’s even used the platform to crowdsource https://x.com/bchesky/status/1653856833029775360 suggestions for business improvements, such as lowering cleaning fees and, ironically, crypto payments https://x.com/bchesky/status/1478554154385633280 , which earned praise https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1654561799432450049?s=20 from X owner Elon Musk. “This kind of interaction with users is awesome,” Musk wrote in response https://x.com/bchesky/status/1654555226412548096 to the 2023 call for ideas, urging other companies to take note. Commentary from Chesky on crypto is out of character for his accounts. This week, though, Chesky’s replies were filled with accusations of “AI slop,” a term that describes low-quality content produced by artificial intelligence. Users pointed out aspects of the Chesky “tokenization” post that suggested it had been cooked up by AI. “One thing that really makes AI writing distinct is the lack of commas,” Bloomberg’s Joseph Weisenthal wrote https://x.com/TheStalwart/status/2076876726131376375 . Communications strategist and Rostra founder Lulu Cheng Meservey, meanwhile, warned https://x.com/lulumeservey/status/2077038364272828450?s=46&t=nTCZM4S-mFUpp NQJIrhbQ that “CEOs damage trust when they post unfiltered claudeslop.” When Fortune analyzed Chesky’s thread through AI-detection tool Pangram, the system flagged it as 100% AI-generated. The posts have since been deleted https://x.com/bchesky/status/2076862517792411997 . Airbnb declined to provide a public comment. The thread appeared as a reply to a user https://x.com/StarPlatinum /status/2076613512294547906 referencing Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev’s recent interview https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/07/02/robinhood-expands-global-tokenized-investing-and-ai-powered-trading.html with CNBC, in which he discussed the growing market for tokenized real-world assets. The hacked posts were flagged to X and escalated to platform security teams as a “high-profile compromise,” according to correspondence between Airbnb and X employees reviewed by Fortune . X secured the account on Tuesday evening, and Chesky was then able to regain access to his account. The rise of AI slop Chesky has previously praised the use of artificial intelligence, telling CNBC https://fortune.com/2026/05/07/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-two-people-wont-survive-ai-era-pure-people-managers-workers-resist-change/ in February that the tech “is the best thing that ever happened to Airbnb.” The serial founder is also preparing to launch https://fortune.com/2026/06/04/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-plans-to-start-a-new-ai-company/ a new AI lab focused on building new models, according to Bloomberg. But the surge of low-quality AI-generated content is becoming a bigger headache for both business leaders and creatives, and the volume of mediocre images, videos, and text has grown so overwhelming that Merriam-Webster named https://fortune.com/2025/12/15/the-word-of-the-year-is-slop-merriam-webster-says/ “slop” its 2025 word of the year. A new analysis https://www.pangram.com/blog/ai-in-your-feed?pscd=affiliate.pangram.com&ps partner key=Njc2MGJmYTFhNWU5&sid=122276X1583643X6cd9d2aedfc7ac0421262e52566a60de&sharedid=fastcompany.com&ps xid=swBeOgmiumCXwS&gsxid=swBeOgmiumCXwS&gspk=Njc2MGJmYTFhNWU5 by AI detection platform Pangram found that roughly one in four long-form social media posts are now AI-generated. Nearly half of X’s longer “Articles” contain AI-written material. Leaders across industries are concerned. Substack CEO Chris Best warned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suQzCETsetc in September that AI could clog already crowded feeds with low-quality content and strain an attention economy he referred to as a “scarce resource.” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan dedicated a section of his annual letter https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/the-future-of-youtube-2026/ to “managing AI slop,” declaring it a top priority for 2026. Oscar-winning director Christoper Nolan told https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2026/07/10/christopher-nolan-interview-odyssey-backlash/ The Telegraph this week that Gen Zers are “utterly rejecting” AI slop with reactions that are “immediate and harsh.” “They see it for what it is very quickly,” The Odyssey director said. “It’s much easier for them to identify it, because it grew out of an online world they know really well.” A recent report https://investors.sproutsocial.com/news/news-details/2026/Social-Media-is-Now-the-Top-Source-for-Breaking-News-New-Sprout-Social-Research-Finds/default.aspx from social media management platform Sprout Social found that 56% of respondents say they encounter “AI slop” on social media often or very often, and 83% say they see it at least sometimes. Gen Z is more likely to rebuff the content, too. Half of respondents said they have unfollowed, muted, or blocked accounts if the content felt like AI slop. Fortune 500 CEO security Chesky is not the first Fortune 500 CEO to have a social media account compromised. In 2016, Meta https://fortune.com/company/facebook/ founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest https://fortune.com/company/pinterest/ accounts were briefly compromised https://fortune.com/2016/06/06/mark-zuckerberg-accounts-hacked/ by a group called OurMine Team. “Hey @finkd Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter handle we got access to your Twitter & Instagram & Pinterest, we are just testing your security, please dm direct message us,” the now-deleted post read. In 2019, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s account was briefly taken over https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/06/hack-of-jack-dorseys-twitter-account-highlights-sim-swapping-threat.html for 20 minutes, an action that led to the platform to permanently disable https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/04/tech/twitter-tweet-text-message its “text-to-tweet” SMS feature. Subscribe to Fortune Gulf Brief . 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