Duolingo is “greater than doubling” the variety of programs it has obtainable, a feat it says was solely attainable as a result of it used generative AI to assist create them in “lower than a yr.”
The corporate said today 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 – obtainable to all 28 supported consumer 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 shortly “by way of advances in generative AI, shared content material methods, and inner tooling.” The brand new method is internally known as “shared content material,” and the corporate says it permits staff to make a base course and shortly 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 an announcement.
The announcement follows a latest memo despatched by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn to workers saying that the corporate can be “AI-first” and that it might “regularly cease utilizing contractors to do work that AI can deal with.” AI use will now be evaluated through the hiring course of and as a part of efficiency critiques, and von Ahn says that “headcount will solely be given if a staff can’t 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 transferring on this path, and it has been game-changing for our firm. Among the finest choices we made not too long ago was changing a sluggish, handbook content material creation course of with one powered by AI, below the path of our studying design specialists. That shift allowed us to create and launch 148 new language programs right now.”
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 also be “consistently testing and enhancing our fashions” and has “methods in place” to make sure that output from AI meets its requirements for course content material and is aligned with the Widespread European Framework of Reference for Languages, a normal for language proficiency.
Dalsimer says that “internally, many groups are already embracing and utilizing AI of their work, and have been for years.” Nonetheless, Dalsimer acknowledges that there have been “unfavourable reactions” to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer additionally notes that Duolingo has “no intention to cut back full-time headcount or hiring” and that “any modifications to contractor staffing will probably be thought-about on a case-by-case foundation.”