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After years of jokes and memes about the Duolingo owl being the most evil creature ever conceived by the human mind, the popular language-learning app has now embraced the role of a villain itself, openly declaring that its new company policy will be "AI-first" when it comes to the educational content they provide, hiring practices, the Duolingo codebase, internal workflows – virtually any aspect of the operation you can think of.
Proving that last year's rumors about them firing a massive number of workers in favor of AI were true, an official statement from Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn confirms the company has been experimenting with the controversial technology throughout 2024, replacing the manual content creation process with one handled by AI – something von Ahn calls "one of the best decisions" Duolingo has ever made.
As part of the "AI-first" transition, the company will shift its internal processes – such as, for instance, rethinking Duolingo's codebase – to ones powered by AI. "We'd rather move with urgency and take occasional small hits on quality than move slowly and miss the moment," the statement reads, making one almost grateful to Duo's PR department for not muddying the waters too much and openly admitting they're fully prepared to compromise on quality in favor of riding the artificial intelligence hype wave on time.
Other than the code and learning content, AI will also seep into other processes within Duolingo, such as hiring, performance reviews, and headcount – all of which will now be guided by "AI-first" principles. "AI use will be part of what we look for in hiring. AI use will be part of what we evaluate in performance reviews. Headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work," von Ahn wrote.
Last but not least, Duolingo has pledged to gradually replace all of its contract workers with artificial intelligence, claiming – like many before them when replacing humans with machines – that the move has goals more noble than simply cutting costs. "Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees," says the CEO. "This isn't about replacing Duos with Al. It's about removing bottlenecks so we can do more with the outstanding Duos we already have."
Below is the full statement shared by Luis von Ahn:
Naturally, with AI being one of the most divisive topics you could imagine, many were unhappy with Duolingo's direction going forward and their plans to replace contractors with chatbots:
And what do you think about Duolingo going "AI-first"? Will it benefit users and the app's developers, or only Duo's upper echelon? Share your thoughts down in the comments!
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