The CEO of Duolingo has retracted his claim that artificial intelligence will replace the company’s human workforce, stating instead that AI should be treated as a tool to assist employees rather than to supplant them.
On Thursday, Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, posted on LinkedIn that “To be clear: I do not see AI as a replacement for what our employees do (in fact, we are continuing to hire at the same pace as before).” He added, “I see it as a tool to accelerate what we do, at the same level or better quality. And the sooner we learn to use it, and use it responsibly, the better off we will be in the long run.”
von Ahn continued outlining plans for internal support as Duolingo increases its use of AI. “No one is expected to navigate this change alone,” he said. “We are developing workshops and advisory councils, and reserving dedicated time for experimentation to help all our teams learn and adapt.”
A few days earlier, Duolingo had said it would “gradually stop using contractors to do the work that AI can handle,” consider AI skills in annual performance reviews, and hire only when teams could not automate more of their tasks.
In an appearance on the No Priors podcast with Sarah Guo, von Ahn predicted that AI could eventually teach any subject, at scale, and provide “better learning outcomes” than human instructors. He added that schools would still be necessary for childcare.
Duolingo defends AI-driven lessons amid criticism
On TikTok and Instagram pages of Duolingo, critics flooded the comments. One user replied to a video featuring a baby owl plush toy saying, “Mom, can I have real people running the company?”
In another TikTok video, von Ahn appeared in front of a masked figure to defend the movement, saying, “AI will allow us to reach more people.”
A spokesperson for Duolingo told Fortune that the company continues to hire and invest in employee training to make AI a benefit rather than a threat.
“We are still growing our team, and we are training and developing our talent to benefit from the use of AI,” said the spokesperson. “All AI content is created under the direction and guidance of our learning experts. We have rigorous quality standards to ensure that any content we publish is safe, accurate, and aligned with the CEFR,” referring to an international framework for language proficiency.
Last month, the payment app Klarna also retracted claims that its AI chatbot outperformed human staff, admitting that the bot’s “lower quality” responses meant it would resume hiring people. The e-commerce platform Shopify faced criticism as well after suggesting in an internal memo that AI-driven benefits would reduce the need for new hires.
The promise of AI falls short in most jobs
Observers say these retractions highlight a gap between the enthusiasm for an “AI-first” approach among investors and executives and its reception by ordinary users and employees. Generative AI often uses vast amounts of data without reliable information, produces errors or strange results, and operates in a regulatory gray area.
Additionally, the expected productivity gains have only been shown in a few limited cases.
An IBM survey of 2,000 business leaders found that 75% of AI projects do not meet their return on investment goals. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research on 25,000 workers in industries exposed to AI showed no significant increases in productivity, wages, or hours worked.
“This tool that has been adopted so quickly, where expectations are so high, [not making] a difference in profits was a surprise to me,” said Anders Humlum, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and one of the authors of the NBER study.
He noted that the shift towards AI assistance is “much smaller and much slower” than its proponents often claim.
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