Duolingo Ceo Says Controversial Ai Memo Was Misunderstood

In Brief

While Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn was loudly criticized this twelvemonth aft declaring that Duolingo would go an “AI-first company,” he suggested successful a caller question and reply nan existent rumor was that he “did not springiness capable context.”

“Internally, this was not controversial,” von Ahn told The New York Times. “Externally, arsenic a publically traded institution immoderate group presume that it’s conscionable for profit. Or that we’re trying to laic disconnected humans. And that was not nan intent astatine all.”

On nan contrary, von Ahn said nan institution has “never laid disconnected immoderate full-time employees” and has nary volition of doing so. And while he didn’t contradict that Duolingo had cut its contractor workforce, he suggested that “from nan opening … our contractor workforce has gone up and down depending connected needs.”

Despite nan disapproval (which does not look to person made a large impact connected Duolingo’s bottommost line), von Ahn still sounds highly bullish astir A.I.’s potential, pinch Duolingo squad members taking each Friday greeting to research pinch nan technology.

“It’s a bad acronym, f-r-A-I-days,” he said. “I don’t cognize really to pronounce it.”

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