Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn faced criticism this year after announcing Duolingo would prioritize becoming an “AI-first company.” In a new interview, he clarified that the controversy stemmed from a lack of context in his statement.
“Internally, this wasn’t controversial,” von Ahn told The New York Times. “Externally, as a publicly traded company, some people assume it’s purely for profit or that we’re planning to lay off human workers, which was not the case.”
Von Ahn emphasized that the company has “never laid off any full-time employees” and has no plans to do so. While he acknowledged that Duolingo had reduced its contractor workforce, he explained that this fluctuation was based on operational needs.
Despite the criticism, which doesn’t appear to have impacted Duolingo’s financial performance significantly, von Ahn remains optimistic about AI’s potential. Duolingo staff dedicate Friday mornings to experimenting with AI technology.
“It’s a bad acronym, f-r-A-I-days,” he joked. “I don’t know how to pronounce it.”