Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn has defended his company’s controversial “AI-first” strategy, stating that the backlash earlier this year was a result of a misunderstanding rather than any actual plan to replace human employees.
Von Ahn faced significant criticism after he told investors that Duolingo would become an “AI-first company.” Many people assumed this move was driven by a desire for profit or would lead to widespread layoffs of human staff.
“In reality, internally this was not controversial,” von Ahn told The New York Times. “Externally, as a publicly traded company, some people assume that it’s just for profit. Or that we’re trying to lay off humans. And that was not the intent at all.”
Duolingo Insists No Layoffs Are Planned
The CEO stressed that Duolingo has “never laid off any full-time employees” and has no plans to do so. He did acknowledge that the number of contractor roles has fluctuated, but he argued this has always been tied to business needs, not the adoption of AI.
Embracing AI Through Experimentation
Despite the criticism, von Ahn remains optimistic about the future of AI’s role at Duolingo. Employees are encouraged to regularly explore the technology, with every Friday morning dedicated to AI experiments. “It’s a bad acronym, f-r-A-I-days,” he joked. “I don’t know how to pronounce it.”
