Duolingo is “greater than doubling” the variety of programs it has accessible, a feat it says was solely attainable as a result of it used generative AI to assist create them in “lower than a 12 months.”
The firm stated at this time that it’s launching 148 new language programs. “This launch makes Duolingo’s seven hottest non-English languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin – accessible to all 28 supported person interface (UI) languages, dramatically increasing studying choices for over a billion potential learners worldwide,” the corporate writes.
Duolingo says that constructing one new course traditionally has taken “years,” however the firm was in a position to construct this new suite of programs extra rapidly “by way of advances in generative AI, shared content material techniques, and inner tooling.” The new strategy is internally referred to as “shared content material,” and the corporate says it permits workers to make a base course and rapidly customise it for “dozens” of various languages.
“Now, through the use of generative AI to create and validate content material, we’re in a position to focus our experience the place it’s most impactful, guaranteeing each course meets Duolingo’s rigorous high quality requirements,” Duolingo’s senior director of studying design, Jessie Becker, says in a press release.
The announcement follows a current memo despatched by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn to employees saying that the corporate can be “AI-first” and that it could “step by step cease utilizing contractors to do work that AI can deal with.” AI use will now be evaluated throughout the hiring course of and as a part of efficiency critiques, and von Ahn says that “headcount will solely be given if a workforce can not automate extra of their work.”
“Our imaginative and prescient has at all times been to make use of expertise to show in addition to a human tutor, and due to AI, that objective is inside our attain for the primary time ever,” spokesperson Sam Dalsimer tells The Verge in response to questions despatched following von Ahn’s memo. “We’ve already been shifting on this route, and it has been game-changing for our firm. One of the very best selections we made just lately was changing a gradual, guide content material creation course of with one powered by AI, beneath the route of our studying design specialists. That shift allowed us to create and launch 148 new language programs at this time.”
Dalsimer says that Duolingo has been “utilizing and testing AI for years” and that it “wouldn’t be rolling out new course content material and this AI-first firm technique if we weren’t assured in AI.” Duolingo can be “always testing and bettering our fashions” and has “techniques in place” to make sure that output from AI meets its requirements for course content material and is aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, an ordinary for language proficiency.
Dalsimer says that “internally, many groups are already embracing and utilizing AI of their work, and have been for years.” However, Dalsimer acknowledges that there have been “detrimental reactions” to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer additionally notes that Duolingo has “no intention to scale back full-time headcount or hiring” and that “any modifications to contractor staffing might be thought of on a case-by-case foundation.”
