Duolingo acknowledged that it had slashed employees by 10% and that AI had been used to complete the work after an employee reported the layoff.
At the company that owns the well-known language learning app Duolingo, the increasing application of artificial intelligence (AI) is hurting human resources. Shortly after the CEO announced that Duolingo was depending more on generative AI to create its content, the company responded to Bloomberg by announcing that it had slashed 10% of its workforce.
An unnamed Duolingo employee had previously claimed on Reddit that the company had eliminated numerous positions. He claimed that a sizable portion of Duolingo’s translation contractors were let go in December 2023. This is a result of the business realizing AI could complete these translations quickly and affordably.
This Reddit user says they were part of a four-person team at Duolingo for five years. However, as AI takes over content creation and translation for Duolingo courses, the team has now been cut in half. The other two, according to him, are only checking the AI’s content to make sure it’s appropriate.
A Duolingo representative, however, told PC Mag that this is not a layoff because the staff members completed the project at the end of 2023. He said that before the shutdown, the company made an effort to find alternate roles for every employee, and that people experts were still heavily involved in the creation of Duolingo’s content.
Reddit users are debating whether Duolingo is justified in using AI to replace labor that was previously completed by humans due to the company’s employment practices. Concerns over cutting-edge AI replacing human labor are becoming more widespread. ChatGPT from OpenAI and other chatbots have demonstrated that the technology is capable of writing articles, producing high-quality artwork, narrating content in multiple voices, and even writing computer code.