Duolingo
, the popular
language-learning app
, has cut 10% of its contractors, according to Bloomberg, as it turns to
generative AI
for creating content for its app. This move comes months after the CEO announced that the company is relying more on generative
AI
to develop its content.
“We just no longer need as many people to do the type of work some of these contractors were doing.
Part of that could be attributed to AI,” a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. Duolingo had 600 full-time employees at the end of 2022, based on company filings.
Recently, an individual who worked for Duolingo as a contractor claimed on
that the company had terminated a significant number of jobs. The contractor stated that in December 2023, a considerable percentage of the contractors who were responsible for translations were let go as the company realised AI could perform translations faster and cheaper.
“In December 2023, Duolingo ‘off boarded’ a huge percentage of their contractors who did translations,” the contractor wrote on Reddit. “Of course this is because they figured out that AI can do these translations in a fraction of the time. Plus it saves them money.”
According to a spokesperson, the reduction in jobs at Duolingo does not mean that employees are being replaced with AI technology. Its full-time employees and contractors already use the technology in their work, so the
job reduction
is not a direct result of implementing AI. The spokesperson stated that none of the full-time employees were impacted by the cutback.
Duolingo's CEO, Luis von Ahn, mentioned in a letter to shareholders in November that the company is using generative AI technology to speed up the creation of text, speech, and images. This technology is being used to create new content, such as scripts for language teaching shows, at a significantly faster pace. Additionally, the company is using AI to generate voices within the app. Duolingo has also introduced a premium tier, Duolingo Max, which features AI-generated feedback and conversations in languages other than English.
English (US) ·