What just happened? Another company has learned that going all-in on AI at the expense of human workers might save money, but the backlash from users can outweigh the financial benefits. Language-learning app Duolingo, whose CEO recently said AI would replace contract workers, has reversed course, stating that the company would "continue to hire" humans and support employees.
At the end of April, Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn announced plans for the firm to become yet another "AI-first" company, meaning more of the technology being integrated into the platform and the eventual elimination of contract workers.
Von Ahn said Duolingo would "gradually stop using contractors to do work AI can handle." He added that proficiency with the technology would become part of workers' annual reviews, and new employees would only be hired "if a team cannot automate more of their work."
The CEO doubled down on his AI praise on the No Priors podcast a week later. He said AI would transform schools as we know them, replacing teachers who would move from instructing students to supervising them as the AI took over traditional teaching duties.
"I also don't think schools are going to go away because you still need childcare," he added.
Last month wasn't the first time von Ahn had shown a willingness to replace humans with AI. In January 2024, 10% of Duolingo's contract workers were laid off due to the technology.
Unsurprisingly, von Ahn's push hasn't been well received by both Duolingo's users and the majority of the public. The company tried to address the controversy in an Instagram post that manages to hugely miss the mark. The most liked comment reads, "Call us old-fashioned, but we prefer our lessons to be taught by humans."
It appears that von Ahn has decided that the bad publicity isn't worth the headache. In a LinkedIn post providing "more context to my vision," von Ahn wrote, "To be clear: I do not see AI as replacing what our employees do (we are in fact continuing to hire at the same speed as before). I see it as a tool to accelerate what we do, at the same or better level of quality."
After companies starting falling over each other in their rush to praise generative AI and use it to replace workers, some are now curbing their enthusiasm.
Buy now, pay later app Klarna, another firm that went all-in on AI and has let go of thousands of employees as a result, is now hiring humans again after CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted that its customer service AI chatbots offered a "lower quality" than their fleshy equivalents. Moreover, many people refuse to use a company's services if they are forced to talk to a machine rather than a real person.
Not every company is backing away from the AI-first pledge. Shopify's CEO told managers last month they must prove an AI can't do the job better than a human before hiring new workers.
Duolingo CEO backtracks on AI push, says human workers still needed
