Duolingo CEO Louis von Ahn said his company will not force AI adoption where it dilutes creative quality, reversing a controversial policy that measures employee performance based on AI usage frequency.
in a presence at Instant reaction In a podcast on Tuesday, von Ahn acknowledged that although AI excels at some tasks, “for some things, it’s not ready to do high-quality work”. The company will not sacrifice design craft to meet AI usage quotas.
Design is Duolingo’s primary concern. The company employs a number of artists and designers whose work defines the user experience of the app. Von Ahn emphasized that Duolingo’s design remains “very high-craft”, and that AI has not yet caught on. “We are by no means seeing AI reaching the level of creativity or the level of our top people,” he said.
Duolingo’s distinctive visual identity attracts millions of daily users. Deploying AI-generated designs may harm competitive advantage.
Last April, Duolingo announced it would evaluate employee performance based partly on AI use. The policy backfired. Employees began to use AI in situations where it did not improve their work, prioritizing metrics over quality. Von Ahn admitted the mistake directly: “I don’t think it was right,” he said, noting that the comprehensive evaluation policy “was not needed.”
The company no longer measures its employees’ performance based on AI usage. As von Ahn explained, not all employees need AI tools, and it was wrong to impose AI systems on everyone because it would create the wrong incentives.
