Duolingo appears to be relying more on artificial intelligence than its contract translators.
The Pittsburgh language learning company announced that it let go 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023, in some cases because tasks that were formerly done by contractors are now being aided by AI.
“There is some merit to the idea that AI is contributing to the reduction of our contract workforce, but it would be an oversimplification to say this is the sole reason,” Sam Dalsimer, Duolingo’s global head of communications, said Monday by email. “We use AI for a variety of different functions and tasks.”
Contract and staff employees are still closely involved in reviewing AI outputs for accuracy, he said. Those tasks include generating sentences and acceptable translations.
Mr. Dalsimer said Duolingo tried to find alternate roles for the contractors affected by the changes.
Duolingo was an early adopter of AI systems and one of the first to implement OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Its system trains on the 10 billion exercises users try each week, learning how individual people learn and optimizing lessons to improve efficiency, AI lead Klinton Bicknell told the Post-Gazette in an interview in December.
He said the company was starting to intentionally show people how much its AI had learned about them. “Giving people a peek behind the curtain,” he said.
He also said Duolingo was planning to hire two new AI positions: one to help personalize the tool, and another to refine its speech.
AI wasn’t destined to replace jobs, he said. Instead, it would save translators time, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks.
At an October showcase, Mr. Bicknell demonstrated AI’s ability to generate real-time conversations with users through the app’s premium, paid plan. Online, many people reacted to allegations of AI taking over language learning with concern.
“There's nuances in languages that AI can't fully replicate,” one person wrote on Reddit.
For others, the move was emblematic of the larger concern that AI will take over jobs, despite assurances from many companies that the technology will augment, rather than replace, existing workforces.
“This is a trend that is going to ravage the job markets,” another Reddit comment said.
Evan Robinson-Johnson: ejohnson@post-gazette.com and @sightsonwheels
First Published: January 8, 2024, 9:11 p.m.
Updated: January 9, 2024, 3:19 a.m.
