Duolingo announced plans this week to replace contractors with AI and become an “AI-first” company — a move that journalist Brian Merchant pointed to as a
They have less than 1000 employees. Previous cuts were of 10% of employees. Are they really being replaced with AI or is the curriculum just finished? I have a feeling AI isn’t expanding very much of the curriculum. Duolingo is probably just spouting “we have AI” nonsense like every technology company to sound like they are cutting edge.
I doubt they’ve completely covered every important language. And from what I’ve seen, their speech recognition quality is terrible. So obviously there’s still room for improvement.
And language changes over time, though maybe not much on these timescales. But even if the curriculum officially covers 100% of a language at one point in time, the language is still going to drift from that snapshot.
They have less than 1000 employees. Previous cuts were of 10% of employees. Are they really being replaced with AI or is the curriculum just finished? I have a feeling AI isn’t expanding very much of the curriculum. Duolingo is probably just spouting “we have AI” nonsense like every technology company to sound like they are cutting edge.
I doubt they’ve completely covered every important language. And from what I’ve seen, their speech recognition quality is terrible. So obviously there’s still room for improvement.
And language changes over time, though maybe not much on these timescales. But even if the curriculum officially covers 100% of a language at one point in time, the language is still going to drift from that snapshot.