Duolingo did not disclose that it fired all its translators. The company confirmed that it cut around 10% of its contractors at the end of 2023; some affected contractors did lesson-writing and translation-related work. In February 2024, CEO Luis von Ahn said AI was probably the biggest reason for reducing the contractor workforce. A 2025 AI-first policy later made contractor automation explicit, even as von Ahn separately said he did not see AI replacing full-time employees.
What happened to Duolingo’s translators?
The Washington Post reported in January 2024 that Duolingo had reduced its contractor workforce, including contractors who wrote lessons and proposed translations. The company confirmed through spokesperson Sam Dalsimer that it had cut around 10% of contractors by the end of 2023. It did not disclose a headcount, or how many of those contractors were translators.
Former contractors told the paper that cuts affected teams working on dozens of language programs. The reporting described separate waves in August and December 2023: workers on less popular programs were affected in August, followed by broader cuts in December. These accounts do not establish that every translator lost work or that all language programs were affected equally.
The 10% figure refers to contractors, not 10% of Duolingo’s employees or translators. The Washington Post reported that the company had more than 700 full-time employees at the time; that is a contemporaneous 2024 figure, not a current headcount. The Washington Post’s January 2024 report did not give the number of people affected.
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Was AI the reason for the contractor cuts?
Duolingo’s initial explanation and its CEO’s later comments give a clearer answer than the headline shorthand. In January 2024, the company described AI as a productivity and efficiency tool intended to help add content and improve courses faster. Dalsimer said: “We are not swapping the expertise of human experts for AI. AI is a tool we are using to increase productivity and efficiency, with the goal of adding new content and improving our courses faster.”
Former contractors interviewed by the paper viewed the cuts differently, saying AI was replacing work they had done. On Duolingo’s February 28, 2024 earnings call, von Ahn said: “The press reported that we did layoffs based on AI that is actually not what happened.” He then acknowledged AI was probably the biggest reason for reducing the contractor workforce, and described using AI both to create content and build interactive learning features. The call transcript is available from Roic AI.
The distinction matters: the company framed AI as a way to improve productivity, while the CEO identified it as a major factor behind reducing contractor numbers. Neither statement establishes how much work shifted from people to AI or how many individual roles disappeared because of automation.
What did Duolingo say about alternate work and lesson quality?
Dalsimer told The Washington Post that Duolingo tried to find alternate roles for every contractor. Former Russian-language contractor Benjamin Costello said he had not been offered another job; another former contractor also said they had not been given an opportunity for a different role. Those accounts conflict, and the available reporting does not resolve what happened in each case.
Costello also criticized lesson quality. The spokesperson responded that users reported very few errors in the Russian course and said no fully AI-generated sentences had yet been placed in courses at the time of the January 2024 report. That was a dated statement about the course then—not a description of Duolingo’s current content process.
What changed with Duolingo’s 2025 AI-first policy?
In April 2025, an employee memo announced an AI-first direction and said Duolingo would gradually stop using contractors for work AI could handle. That made contractor automation an explicit forward policy, beyond the earlier discussion of AI as a productivity tool. YourStory’s April 2025 account reproduced the memo’s policy language.
Later in 2025, von Ahn said the memo had lacked clarity and wrote: “To be clear: I do not see AI as replacing what our employees do (we are in fact continuing to hire at the same speed as before).” LinkedIn News reproduced his clarification in its coverage of the memo.
His clarification concerned employees, not a reversal of the stated policy to phase out contractor work that AI can handle. The company’s statement about continued hiring therefore should not be read as a promise to preserve contractor roles.
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How much Duolingo content is AI-generated now?
Duolingo’s current strategy page describes using AI to expand course content and support features including Math and AI-supported Video Call. The company says it shipped 7,500 content units in 2024, compared with 425 in 2021, and associates that expansion with AI-enabled content generation. Those figures are company-reported output counts; they do not show what percentage of lessons AI wrote.
The strategy page does not quantify the share of AI-generated lessons or set out a complete current human-review process. It documents the company’s stated strategy, not an independent audit of course authorship or quality. For the company’s account of its approach, see Duolingo’s Company Strategy Overview and its strategy blog.
Quick Recap
What the record establishes—and what it does not
- Established: Duolingo confirmed cutting around 10% of contractors by the end of 2023, and CEO von Ahn later said AI was probably the biggest reason for the reduction.
- Established: Some contractors did lesson-writing and translation-related work, and the 2025 AI-first policy said contractors would gradually no longer be used for work AI could handle.
- Not established: The total number of people affected, the translator-only share of cuts, whether all translators were affected, or a complete account of contractors’ later employment.
- Not established: The current percentage of AI-authored course content or a comprehensive current human-review protocol.
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