Whereas Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn was loudly criticized this yr after declaring that Duolingo would grow to be an “AI-first firm,” he prompt in a brand new interview the actual subject was that he “didn’t give sufficient context.”
“Internally, this was not controversial,” von Ahn advised The New York Occasions. “Externally, as a publicly traded firm some individuals assume that it’s only for revenue. Or that we’re attempting to put off people. And that was not the intent in any respect.”
Quite the opposite, von Ahn stated the corporate has “by no means laid off any full-time workers” and has no intention of doing so. And whereas he didn’t deny that Duolingo had minimize its contractor workforce, he prompt that “from the start … our contractor workforce has gone up and down relying on wants.”
Regardless of the criticism (which doesn’t appear to have made a big effect on Duolingo’s backside line), von Ahn nonetheless sounds extraordinarily bullish about A.I.’s potential, with Duolingo workforce members taking each Friday morning to experiment with the know-how.
“It’s a foul acronym, f-r-A-I-days,” he stated. “I don’t know the right way to pronounce it.”
