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- Following backlash to statements that Duolingo will be AI-first, threatening jobs in the process, CEO Luis von Ahn has tried to walk back his statement.
- Unfortunately, the CEO doesn’t walk back any of the key points he originally outlined, choosing instead to try, and fail to placate the maddening crowd.
- Unfortunately the PR team may soon be replaced by AI as this latest statement has done anything but instil confidence in the firm’s users.
About a month ago, Duolingo decided that it would gradually fire all contractors and instead, use AI in a bid to become an AI-first company. Beyond firing contractors, Duolingo planned to make AI a requirement for every aspect of its business. Now Luis von Ahn is trying to do damage control, and failing.
The billionaire took to LinkedIn last week to admit that he wasn’t clear in his AI memo, a memo that sent users into a frenzy, swearing off the app, cancelling premium subscriptions and a once-beloved brand being dragged through the mud.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen with AI, but I do know it’s going to fundamentally change the way we work, and we have to get ahead of it,” admits the man who just a few weeks ago crowed about how vital AI was to Duolingo’s business.
“AI is creating uncertainty for all of us, and we can respond to this with fear or curiosity. I’ve always encouraged our team to embrace new technology (that’s why we originally built for mobile instead of desktop), and we are taking that same approach with AI. By understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI now, we can stay ahead of it and remain in control of our own product and our mission,” writes von Ahn.
Except that’s not at all what you said last month is it Luis? You said that AI was needed to understand your codebase and that without AI, it’d be impossible to scale the platform. In fact, you went so far as to say that despite AI not being “100 percent perfect” it was vital that Duolingo leap headfirst into the space.
The CEO then also says that Duolingo isn’t looking to replace employees with AI, despite explicitly saying as much about contractors. The key here is that, in the eyes of Duolingo and most Silicon Valley powerhouses (we’re looking at you Uber) hiring contractors is a way to avoid the requirements that go along with having employees.
“My goal is for Duos [employees] to feel empowered and prepared to use this technology. 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,” wrote von Ahn.
Below his LinkedIn post you will find all the sycophantic praise you might expect from the mix of wealthy and bot users on the platform. It’s all very gross and only serves to highlight just how out of touch the wealthy are with regular people.
The Duolingo CEO’s latest post does nothing to reverse the statement made a month ago. The CEO didn’t backtrack the statement that AI would form part of whether a candidate is worth hiring or not. He also didn’t backtrack the statement that headcount will only increase if a team can no longer automate anymore of their work.
Essentially then, this was a nothing statement from von Ahn that we suspect Duolingo’s PR issued as a sort of damage control. Unfortunately, that team may soon be replaced by AI because it isn’t going well. To their credit, it didn’t help that von Ahn made a frankly stupid comment about machines being able to teach a person anything another human could. Already being dragged by the public, this backtracking just added more fuel to the fire.
Some have taken this latest sign that Duolingo is backtracking its suggestion of being AI first but there’s no language in the statement to suggest that and key statements made last month weren’t walked back at all.
Unfortunately, Silicon Valley isn’t listening to the masses. They are investing heavily in tech on the basis that it can replace workers and make them more money without a second thought. Unfortunately for Duolingo, its customer base is largely consumer-facing and if there is one thing consumers hate more than a scam, it’s injustice and this trend with AI seems to combine both.
We doubt public pressure will actually change what happens at Duolingo. We suspect that if anything, it will simply mean von Ahn stops making public statements unless that aren’t heavily sanitised by the legal and PR department.
