World's #1 Language App Lays Off Humans and Replaces Them With AI

Duolingo was downloaded 16 million times in September 2023 alone

Courtesy of StartupTalky

Duolingo has 40 million registered users and is the world’s largest language-learning app. After downloading the app, you can touch up on or learn some basics of anywhere between 37 and 45 languages (Duolingo doesn’t seem to know exactly how many languages it offers) on offer for free. If you want to do more advanced lessons, then you must pay. The app is straightforward to use, which is why it is so popular. 

Popular language learning app Duolingo is the latest tech company making layoffs, offboarding 10% of its contractors as the company begins phasing out human-led translation in favor of AI.

The news was broken in a viral Reddit post from an ex-employee, which explained that the remaining translators will be tasked with overseeing the AI-led translations to make sure they’re acceptable (Duolingo Sounds AI Layoff Alarms).

Like virtually every tech company, Duolingo has made significant investments in generative AI tools like ChatGPT. The most startling part of yesterday’s press Reddit post was that the humans being retained to work will be tasked with checking the work of their AI colleagues. In other words, they will catch the mistakes made and correct them, which trains the “AI presence,” helping it improve at its job. Eventually, the AI presence will stop making mistakes, and the human will no longer be needed.

If anyone thinks that all of this ends any differently, they are completely ignorant of the potential power of AI. AI learns from us. It stores information and searches for patterns, which helps it react faster and more accurately to requests for information. AI does not tire and seldom has a bad mood. COVID means nothing to an AI presence. Simply put, there is no way that we will be able to compete with AI in the long run. 

As rising inflation rates continue to put pressure on company finances and AI tools get more capable each day, a swath of companies are embracing the technology to the detriment of their human workers.

For example, tech company Accenture recently announced it would be investing $3 billion in AI technology, after laying off 19,000 workers in early 2023. This mirrors the decisions IMB made, as the company continues to phase out “repetitive white-collar roles” instead of AI (Duolingo Sounds AI Layoff Alarms).

AI apologists will tell us that AI is a “job augmentor,” meaning that more people will eventually be employed thanks to AI technology then will be made redundant. AI fans talk about higher productivity levels and even increased job satisfaction for people who use AI daily. For me, the words “higher levels of productivity” mean people working more for less. Increased job satisfaction is also a term that means little, but really get human resources people all excited.

Duolingo is not alone in its move to get rid of people in favor or AI. According to a November report from ResumeBuilder, 37% of companies surveyed say AI replaced workers in 2023. Looking ahead, 44% say the technology will cause layoffs in 2024.

Chegg, an education technology company, disclosed in a regulatory filing in June that it was cutting 4% of its workforce, or about 80 employees, “to better position the Company to execute against its AI strategy and to create long-term, sustainable value for its students and investors (Duolingo Lays Off Staff).”

No one seems to be listening out there. If you recall, last year, a letter was signed by hundreds of experts in tech and AI. They warned that society needed to pump the brakes before rushing headlong into the AI wall. The critical question being asked was, “Are we ready for large swathes of the workforce suddenly finding themselves unemployable because AI has replaced them?” 

No one is answering this question. While concerned, the signees of that letter also realized that unless they continue to pump money into AI, they will find their companies becoming rapidly less competitive. To stay alive, they, too, must develop the technology, and if that means laying off humans, then so be it.