Duolingo will “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle,” according to an all-hands email sent by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn announcing that the company will be “AI-first.” The email was posted on Duolingo’s LinkedIn account.
According to von Ahn, being “AI-first” means the company will “need to rethink much of how we work” and that “making minor tweaks to systems designed for humans won’t get us there.” As part of the shift, the company will roll out “a few constructive constraints,” including the changes to how it works with contractors, looking for AI use in hiring and in performance reviews, and that “headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.”
von Ahn says that “Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees” and that “this isn’t about replacing Duos with AI.” Instead, he says that the changes are “about removing bottlenecks” so that employees can “focus on creative work and real problems, not repetitive tasks.”
It can’t self-correct, write new curriculum, etc. It’s an abyss for errors and it does not understand when you correct it. I’ve tried and watched it give me the same alternating 2 answers that I told it were both wrong. If it’s wrong, you basically have no idea. You’re putting trust in a navigator that is simply reading instructions and understanding none of them.
I’ve been in tech professionally for around 18 years and have lived through trends and changes. This is by far the worst one and the most haphazard. I’m not anti-AI (I use Copilot at work and it’s constantly wrong), but what is happening now with this AI wave is just reckless. They’re throwing it at everything because shareholders love shiny new things that make line go up.