On the frontlines of social media, where Duolingo rose to internet stardom, the company copped swift backlash following the initial announcement of its new “AI first” approach. Many were concerned the move would remove the human heart behind their favourite learning app. When asked by Bloomberg if AI meant the company’s workers were getting fired, CEO and Co-founder Luis von Ahn said the move wasn’t about firing employees, but scaling back on the amount of contract workers while expanding content output.
Shortly after, Duolingo released 148 new AI-powered courses developed over a year. For comparison, developing the previous 100 courses had taken around 12 years. The update made its seven most-popular non-English courses (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin) available in 28 different languages. According to von Ahn, the new tool frees up staff to focus on more creative, high impact work. And in the last year, it’s seen daily student numbers jump by 40 per cent, to nearly 48 million. Voilà!
Duolingo is not only attracting more users, it’s getting them to spend more as well. Second quarter revenue was just over a quarter of a billion dollars, and more than Wall Street expected. Operating on a freemium model, like Spotify, Duolingo offers lessons alongside ads for no cost and increasing content for paid accounts. Its most expensive account, Duolingo MAX, even includes a Chatbot to practice with, that uses Chat GPT-4. This could resolve one of the app’s weaknesses—the lack of person-to-person practice. Going beyond languages, it also teaches music, maths, and chess lessons. To compete with other distractions, like so many companies, content is the name of the game for Duo.
It isn’t the only language teacher using AI. Professor Irene Jimenez Calderon, who teaches Spanish at the Instituto Cervantes and WEA in Sydney, says Generative AI helps her to construct lessons, but the ideas are hers. “It’s an extra, not a substitution.” Like Duolingo, she also uses games to engage her students, especially for those who are younger.
Part of what set the app apart from its competitors was its mission to make the process of learning a new language as addictive as social media. From the start, Duolingo incorporated many game elements: a points system, levels, characters, animations and noises, and leaderboards. The features do what language teachers don’t have to: constantly entice users to return. The gamification shtick soon became its identity. According to Von Ahn, a significant amount of time has been spent analysing just how effective those little Duo notifications really are.
That human factor has been a weakness for the app, even before the update. When a Duolingo student makes a mistake, a lesson will repeat the exercise with the same example, until they get it right or run out of mistakes. With the newest update, explanations are finally available, but only with Duolingo Max—the highest paid subscription. That seems to undermine the altruistic goals of its co-founder, who said in a TED talk, he “wanted to give equal access to education to everyone.”
Irene believes the app is a good educational complement outside of teacher-led classes, especially for those starting to learn a language, stating that anything that encourages people to learn a language is a good thing. Naturally she’s a keen advocate for learning a new tongue, “I think that you feel realised when you as an individual can produce and know people from other countries by yourself. It’s very important.”
More information is needed to know if Duolingo has passed the AI expansion with flying colours. GPT-5 could help push it further. Just how effective Duo’s new sensei will be, is still undetermined. There is no choice for many users, who’ll take the cheapest option if it translates to a better job. However, it is a democracy for the rich. Students with enough money can use greener tools, or find a human teacher. Rich or poor, Duolingo is proving 48 million people have no qualms with the implications of this new technology, and what it will do to the world.
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