Duolingo Is Replacing Human Workers With AI

Duo’s gonna be one sad little owl after this.Duolingo’s CEO, Luis von Ahn, shared an email with the company’s employees earlier this week in which he reiterated that Duolingo would begin to shift away from using people to create its language learning courses and instead let AI take on the bulk of developing them.To underscore its commitment to becoming an “AI-first” company, as von Ahn put it, Duolingo just released 148 new AI-developed courses.

(opens in a new window)Duolingo(opens in a new window)Available at DuolingoBuy Now(opens in a new window)faster, but better?“Developing our first 100 courses took about 12 years, and now, in about a year, we’re able to create and launch nearly 150 new courses,” von Ahn was quoted as saying in a press release. “This launch reflects the incredible impact of our AI and automation investments, which have allowed us to scale at unprecedented speed and quality.”The new courses are targeted mostly at native speakers of languages other than English.



The list includes, as Duolingo puts it:“Latin America: Spanish and Portuguese speakers can now learn Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin.“Europe: Speakers of fifteen European languages like French, German, Italian, and Spanish can now learn Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin, among other top languages.“Asia: Speakers of Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, Tagalog, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, and Tamil can now learn all of the top seven languages; previously many only had access to learning English.

”Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn’s email – Credit: Luis von Ahn/official duolingo linkedin accountAt one point, I held a 550-day streak in the paid version of Duolingo. I just couldn’t deal with the ads and restrictions of the free version..

. I enjoyed the quirky language lessons. It was obvious that the people creating, say, Russian language lessons with a little girl asking you to fix her tractor were having fun with it.

AI, though, regurgitates a lot of bland, watered-down, derivative copy. I’m skeptical about how hands-off Duolingo can go with its shift toward AI without losing its spunk and soul.If Duolingo’s AI shift has got you feeling down, there’s always my favorite language-learning app, Pimsleur.

It may not be as humorous, but I’ve found it more effective. And at least right now, there’s no sign that it’ll follow Duolingo in becoming an “AI-first” company.(opens in a new window)PimsleurPimsleur Language Learning App(opens in a new window)Available at PimsleurBuy Now(opens in a new window)The post Duolingo Is Replacing Human Workers With AI appeared first on VICE.

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