On April 28, Duolingo cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn posted an email on LinkedIn that he had just sent to all employees at his company. In it, he outlined his vision for the language-learning app to become an “AI-first” organization, including phasing out contractors if AI could do their work, and giving a team the ability to hire a new person only if they were not able to automate their work through AI.
The response was swift and scathing. “This is a disaster. I will cancel my subscription,” wrote one commenter. “AI first means people last,” wrote another. And a third summed up the general feeling of critics when they wrote: “I can’t support a company that replaces humans with AI.”
