Luis von Ahn could have retired to a beach somewhere years ago. Best known as the CEO of the learning app Duolingo, von Ahn in the 2000s invented the captcha, those infuriating little online tests that force people to prove they’re not robots. But after selling his creation to Google in 2009, von Ahn didn’t waste any time launching his next venture: a company borne of his experience growing up in Guatemala, one that’s now among the most prominent education platforms in the world.
Von Ahn’s mom, a doctor, spent all of her extra income to send him to private school, giving von Ahn opportunities that most of his peers never saw. It is, as he tells me in this week’s Big Interview, the reason he founded Duolingo more than a decade ago, with the goal of making high-quality education free and widely available. Today, the company reaches more than 130 million users worldwide, from immigrants learning new languages to celebrities like George Clooney.
Inequality may have inspired von Ahn, but his company now sits at the center of a different conversation: Artificial intelligence. As AI rapidly changes the way people learn, how companies run, and how workers contemplate their worth, I wondered how it was informing Duolingo’s own inner workings, plans for expansion, and potentially its long-term sustainability. If AI can translate just about anything, in any medium, and readily simulate conversation, generate lesson plans, and personalize instruction … does the world still need Duolingo?
Von Ahn is unequivocal in his view: Not only is Duolingo already benefiting from generative AI, he says, but people will continue relishing the opportunity to learn new things using its gamified, motivational approach. In our conversation, he talks about building a mission-driven company within Wall Street constraints, why he doesn’t mind dips in the company’s share price, and why Duolingo can keep users learning in ways that AI cannot.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KATIE DRUMMOND: Luis von Ahn, welcome to The Big Interview.
LUIS VON AHN: Thank you for having me.
We always start these conversations with a few quick questions, like a warmup for your brain. Are you ready?
Sure.
What’s the language you’d desperately love to learn, but haven’t gotten around to yet?
Swedish. I am learning it, but I need to get better at it. My wife is Swedish.
That’s a good reason. You better get on that.
I’m on it.
What job do you think AI should never do?
A lot of jobs. I think that anything where humans need to be inspired, like teachers. Humans need to be inspired. It’s kind of hard to get inspired by AI.
I agree. I think AI has a bit of an inspiration problem. You were 28 when you received the MacArthur “genius” grant. What did you do with the money?
I put it in the bank. I was very happy to have received that. I’m very proud. But yeah, I basically put it in the bank. Eventually that probably ended up being spent setting things up for Duolingo.
What language has the most ridiculous grammar rules?
Finnish and Hungarian are pretty hard to learn and have strange rules. But generally, I don’t know if it’s about ridiculousness. It’s generally that languages that are far from your native language just feel ridiculous, feel weird.
My sister is learning Mandarin right now, and I think she would testify to that.
That is a hard language to learn.
She’s having a rough time. She’s using Duolingo, you know, one day at a time. Now, you invented captcha. Would you like to apologize to me and our audience now, or do you want to find an opportunity to do it later in the podcast?
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