Duolingo is “more than doubling” the number of courses available, made possible by the use of generative artificial intelligence that helped create them “in less than a year.”
Today the company announced that it is launching 148 new language courses. “This launch makes seven of Duolingo’s most popular non-English languages-Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese-available in all 28 supported UI languages, significantly expanding the learning experience for more than a billion potential learners worldwide,” the company writes.
Duolingo says that it used to take “years” to create a single new course, but the company was able to create this new set of courses faster “thanks to advances in generative artificial intelligence, content sharing systems, and internal tools.” The new approach is internally dubbed “collaborative content,” and the company claims it allows employees to create a basic course and quickly customize it for “dozens” of different languages.
“Now, by using generative AI to create and validate content, we can focus our expertise where it’s most effective, ensuring that every course meets Duolingo’s rigorous quality standards,” said Duolingo’s senior director of instructional design, Jessie Becker.
This announcement follows a recent letter sent by co-founder and CEO Louis von Ahn to employees, which stated that the company will be “first in artificial intelligence” and that it will “gradually stop using contractors to do work that can be done by artificial intelligence.” The use of AI will now be evaluated during hiring and as part of performance reviews, and von Ahn says that “the staff will only increase if the team is unable to automate most of its work.”
“Our vision has always been to use technology to teach as well as a human teacher, and thanks to artificial intelligence, that goal is within our reach for the first time ever,” spokesman Sam Dalsimer told The Verge in response to questions sent after von Ahn’s memo. “We’re already moving in that direction, and it’s a game changer for our company. One of the best decisions we’ve made recently is to replace our slow, manual content creation process with an AI-driven process guided by our instructional design experts. This move has allowed us to create and launch 148 new language courses.”
Dalsimer says that Duolingo “has been using and testing artificial intelligence for many years” and that “we wouldn’t be introducing new course content and this strategy of being an AI pioneer if we weren’t confident in it.” Duolingo is also “constantly testing and improving our models” and has “systems in place to ensure that the AI outputs meet its standards for course content and align with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the standard for language proficiency.
Dalsimer says that “within the company, many teams are already implementing and using AI in their work, and have been doing so for many years.” However, Dalsimer admits that there have been “negative reactions” to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer also notes that Duolingo “does not intend to reduce the number of full-time employees or contractors” and that “any changes in contractor staffing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
