Overview

• Luis von Ahn told The New York Times that Duolingo has never laid off full-time staff and does not plan to do so because of AI
• He said backlash over his April memo stemmed from a lack of external context and was never intended to signal mass job cuts
• The internal AI-first memo introduced five “constructive constraints,” including a gradual reduction of contractors for tasks that AI can handle and hiring only when automation falls short
• Duolingo teams dedicate weekly “f-r-AI-days” to experiment with AI tools aimed at freeing engineers from rote work and scaling content production
• The company reports no material financial impact from the controversy and continues to integrate AI to accelerate language-course creation