Duolingo's CEO regrets his actions.

Duolingo faced a wave of strong criticism after adopting an "AI-first" strategy. Photo: Duolingo .

Luis von Ahn, CEO of the language learning platform Duolingo, recently faced backlash after announcing the company would adopt an "AI-first" strategy.

He admitted he "didn't expect such a strong backlash." Many social media users misunderstood, believing that Duolingo had laid off all its employees and replaced them with AI.

In an interview with the Financial Times , von Ahn explained that this outrage stemmed from a shared concern about technology gradually taking away people's jobs. He also admitted that he "should have explained the strategy more clearly to the public."

He later clarified that only “a very small number of employees doing repetitive hourly work that the company no longer needs” would be affected, and many of them could be offered other contract jobs.

Within Duolingo, the reaction from the staff was relatively mild. This suggests they understood Duolingo's long-term commitment to technological innovation. Their primary concern focused on how AI would be applied to Duolingo.

CEO Luis von Ahn has had to apologize after his "misleading remarks." Photo: Financial Times.

Currently, the company continues to recruit for positions that cannot be automated. Notably, half of the new employees are graduates who are already familiar with using AI during their studies.

Von Ahn further explained that Duolingo's "AI-first" strategy focuses on streamlining workflows. Von Ahn himself applies AI to tasks such as Excel calculations and encourages employees to explore how AI can support or take over their work. The ultimate goal is to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up employees' time for more creative or strategic work.

This shift has made a significant difference in fields such as programming and design. Specifically, engineers will use AI to assist in writing code, allowing them to dedicate 10% of their time to learning and development.

Similarly, designers will gradually shift to supervisory roles, while AI takes over the creation of drawings in Duolingo's signature style. Von Ahn believes this supervisory model will become commonplace in most jobs in the future.

AI also plays a crucial role in Duolingo's expansion plans. Mr. von Ahn explained that the current limitation to teaching only 40 languages is due to the enormous workload. However, with the support of AI, Duolingo expects to be able to "multiply the number of languages many times over."

Regarding ethical concerns related to AI, particularly copyright infringement, von Ahn acknowledged it as "a real concern." He stressed that Duolingo is "ensuring the entire model is trained using only the company's own illustrations."

Following a wave of backlash from users, von Ahn posted an apology on LinkedIn for the lack of clarity in his announcement. He acknowledged that AI will "fundamentally change the way we work" and that "AI is creating uncertainty for all of us, and we may react to this with fear or curiosity."

Source: https://znews.vn/ceo-cu-xanh-gap-rac-roi-khi-chon-con-duong-ai-post1559518.html