Duolingo Trims Contract Translator Team Amid AI Integration

The language-learning platform Duolingo has recently reduced its team of contract translators by 10%, a move attributed to the company's growing reliance on advanced generative artificial intelligence (AI) for content creation. This decision reflects a broader trend where technology is increasingly intersecting with tasks traditionally performed by humans.

Contract Work and AI Collaboration

In explaining the layoffs, Duolingo indicated that the roles of some contractors had naturally reached their completion. For others, their tasks are now being supplemented with AI technologies. Sam Dalsimer, Duolingo’s global head of communications, emphasized that while AI is playing a role in streamlining operations, attributing the reduction in contractor workforce solely to AI would be an oversimplification. AI is utilized across various functions, with human oversight ensuring the accuracy of the AI-generated content, including sentences and translations.

Efforts to Mitigate Job Impact

Duolingo made efforts to mitigate the impact on affected contractors by exploring alternative roles within the organization for them. Additionally, the company is in the process of recruiting for two new AI-focused positions—one to enhance personalization features, and the other to improve speech recognition capabilities. According to Dalsimer, the introduction of AI is not about job replacement; instead, it is aimed at saving time for translators so they can focus on more complex challenges.

Duolingo's Growth and Usage

The use of Duolingo for language learning has been significant. In 2023 alone, users completed over 23 billion lessons, with over 8.4 million learners actively studying Hindi. The Language Report 2023 by Duolingo highlighted that users spent nearly 1.5 billion hours on the app, and more than 32 million individuals studied multiple languages over the year.

Duolingo, AI, translators