Duolingo’s CEO outlined his plan to become an ‘AI-first’ company. He didn’t expect the human backlash that followed

On April 28, Duolingo co-founder 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 only giving a team the ability to hire a new person 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.