According to reports, approximately 10% of Duolingo’s contractors have been released, with the educational software developer opting to utilize generative AI for their tasks instead. This development is disheartening.
While they stated that no full-time employees were affected, a Duolingo representative confirmed the layoffs to Bloomberg earlier this week.
The director mentioned that “we no longer require the same number of individuals to carry out the tasks that some of these contractors were handling. AI may be held accountable for part of this shift.”
Duolingo has unveiled a new audio course. Here’s how you can sign up for notifications upon its release.
Furthermore, Duolingo stressed to PC Mag Australia that these actions are not considered layoffs and that contractors were only “offboarded” upon completing their assignments by the end of 2023. The reports of Duolingo downsizing initially emerged in December after an individual claiming to be a Duolingo employee alleged that the company had dismissed numerous contracted translators in favor of AI.
A post on the r/Duolingo subreddit read, “I worked there for five rotations. Our team consisted of four key members, and two of us were let go. The remaining two will oversee the AI-generated content to ensure its quality.”
Mashable has reached out to Duolingo for comment.
Regardless of the terminology used to describe the workforce reductions, individuals concerned about AI replacing their roles view Duolingo’s recent actions with apprehension.
To tailor tasks based on users’ strengths and weaknesses, Duolingo introduced its AI model Birdbrain in 2020. However, until 2023, every exercise chosen by Birdbrain was crafted, reviewed, edited, and translated by human experts.
With the introduction of the Language Learning Model (LLM) AI last June, Duolingo altered its approach by generating complete exercises from prompts.
In a blog post, the company stated, “thanks to Duolingo’s robust Big Language Model, we can generate vast amounts of lesson content with a simple click.” This advancement aims to enhance the efficiency, speed, and productivity of our in-house educators, akin to any modern tool wielded by skilled technicians.
The recent layoffs hint that the LLM may reduce the need for human involvement, despite Duolingo’s emphasis on how AI could facilitate the expansion of smaller courses while still necessitating human oversight.
In March, Duolingo unveiled Duolingo Max, a premium subscription tier for their vocabulary app featuring innovative tools powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4. Currently available for English speakers on iOS with support for French and Spanish, Duolingo plans to introduce additional courses and offerings.
