A week after declaring that AI would eventually replace contract workers at the language-learning app, Duolingo’s CEO said the company was “continuing to hire” and would support its existing workers in getting up to speed on the technology. It follows buzzy startup Klarna in backing off an AI-first promise.
Language-learning app Duolingo has become the latest company to publicly temper its AI enthusiasm after a series of bold proclamations on AI replacing humans garnered severe criticism.
Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO, took to LinkedIn on Thursday to walk back a previous stance pushing AI use over human employees.
“To be clear: I do not see AI as replacing what our employees do (we are in fact continuing to hire at the same speed as before),” he wrote. “I see it as a tool to accelerate what we do, at the same or better level of quality. And the sooner we learn how to use it, and use it responsibly, the better off we will be in the long run.”
He added, “No one is expected to navigate this shift alone. We’re developing workshops and advisory councils, and carving out dedicated experimentation time to help all our teams learn and adapt.”
The clarification is a 180-degree turn from the company’s position a week ago, when it declared it would “gradually stop using contractors to do work AI can handle,” evaluate AI fluency in workers’ annual reviews, and only add new employees “if a team cannot automate more of their work.”
Von Ahn also appeared to throw his weight behind AI over human teachers in a podcast appearance. Speaking on No Priors with Sarah Guo, he predicted that AI would soon be able to teach any subject, at a greater scale, and create “better learning outcomes” than human teachers, but added that schools would continue to exist “because you still need childcare.”
The criticism flew in. On the company’s popular TikTok and Instagram accounts, commenters piled on to bash AI on every recent post. (On one video where a baby owl plushie asked “mama, may I have cookie,” the top comment read: “mama may I have real people running the company 💔”) The company even put von Ahn in his own TikTok, opposite a masked, hoodie-wearing person to explain that “AI will allow us to reach more people.”
A Duolingo spokesperson told Fortune: “We’re still growing our team, and we’re training and developing our talent so they benefit from using AI.” He added, “All AI content is created under the direction and guidance of our learning experts. We have rigorous quality standards in place to ensure that any content we publish is safe, accurate and aligned with the CEFR,” referencing an international standard to measure language ability.
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