A week after declaring that AI would eventually replace contract workers at the language-learning app, Duolingo’s CEO said the company was “continuing to hire” and would support its existing workers in getting up to speed on the technology.
It follows buzzy startup Klarna in backing off an AI-first promise.
Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO, took to LinkedIn on Thursday to walk back a previous stance pushing AI use over human employees.
I just deleted the app today based off his comments. Losing a 918 day streak (but, really, who cares?). A friend of mine deleted it this week, too, and lost 1,200 days.
He’ll “walk this back” today and 100% move forward with reducing the human workforce when the heat dies down. I don’t trust him one bit.
ALSO: check your local library. There’s a chance it has Mango Languages available for free. That’s what I switched to. Now that app sits in the same place where Duo used to be. Easy swap.
Years ago, I used Duolingo only, every day for about 4-5 months until i reached a point where it was difficult enough that I was making too many mistakes.
I later did about 10 lessons with an online teacher, starting from the basics, pronunciation, grammar, alphabet and etc. When I carried on with duolingo after the lessons, it was so much easier that I was getting 100% rights. Just 10 lessons were better than months on duolingo.
Made me realise that duolingo and similar apps are not the best way to learn.