Duolingo Becomes An AI-First Company, Replacing Contractors With AI - 1

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Duolingo Becomes An AI-First Company, Replacing Contractors With AI

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Duolingo announced this Monday that it has officially become an “AI-first” company, gradually replacing contractors with AI capable of handling their work. The company’s CEO, Luis von Ahn, sent an email to employees that was later shared on Duolingo’s LinkedIn account.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • CEO Luis von Ahn announced that Duolingo is officially an AI-first company.
  • The company will gradually transition from using human contractors to relying on AI capable of performing the work.
  • Von Ahn compared the current AI wave to the mobile wave of 2012 and emphasized the need to adopt and embrace the technology quickly.

According to the post , the new measures reflect the fast pace of AI development and the need to adopt emerging technologies quickly. Von Ahn compared the current AI wave to the mobile wave of 2012.

“In 2012, we bet on mobile,” wrote von Ahn. “While others were focused on mobile companion apps for websites, we decided to build mobile-first because we saw it was the future.”

von Ahn explained that they need to develop a “massive amount of content” and that by using AI, they’ve been able to do work that would have taken decades to do manually, including new features like the AI-powered feature Video Call that allows users to interact in real-life conversations with one of Duolingo’s animated characters. “For the first time ever, teaching as well as the best human tutors is within our reach,” wrote the CEO.

Duolingo will be making major changes, including gradually letting go of contractors if the work can be done with AI, rethinking how they work, and including more automation, even if the technology isn’t as good as expected. “We can’t wait until the technology is 100% perfect,” states the email and highlights the urgency for new measures.

“Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees,” wrote von Ahn. “This isn’t about replacing Duos with AI. It’s about removing bottlenecks so we can do more with the outstanding Duos we already have.”

First Shopify. Now Duolingo. If you’re a “digital native business” (ie born in the cloud, born on mobile – think Pinterest, Airbnb, Stripe) and haven’t gotten the memo, here is the literal memo. pic.twitter.com/0dFhgJJLFP — Allie K. Miller (@alliekmiller) April 28, 2025

Just a few days ago, Shopify’s CEO also announced that they will prioritize AI and that they won’t hire new employees unless it can be proved that AI can’t do it.

Hugging Face Launches 3D Robotic Arm Starting At $100 - 2

Photo by ZMorph All-in-One 3D Printers on Unsplash

Hugging Face Launches 3D Robotic Arm Starting At $100

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The French-American company Hugging Face has launched an open-source, 3D-printable robotic arm called the SO-101, which can be built starting at $100. Developed in collaboration with designers and organizations, the project represents a new and optimized version of the earlier SO-100 model.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Hugging Face launched a new open-source, robotic arm model called SO-101.
  • The cost to build the robot starts at $100 and can reach up to $500 depending on the builder’s location and assembly requirements.
  • SO-101 is an improved version of the SO-100 model launched last year.

Clément Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, announced the launch of the new robotic arm on the social media platform X this Monday.

“Super excited to introduce SO-101 today from Huggin Face,” wrote Delangue. “It’s fully open-source hardware and software and integrated with the Hugging Face, LeRobot, Pollen Robotics ecosystem.”

Super excited to introduce SO-101 today from @huggingface , in collaboration with @therobotstudio , Wowrobo, Seeedstudio & Partabot. Building on top of the insanely successful SO-100 (the most popular robot arms ever?), SO-101 are the first robot arms any AI builder should buy.… pic.twitter.com/Y3IHskmiGb — clem 🤗 (@ClementDelangue) April 28, 2025

The CEO explained that the price of the robotic arm will depend on the location of the person or organization that wants to build SO-101 and their assembly requirements. “It costs from $100 to $500, depending on how much you want it assembled and your country of shipping,” states the post. “Can’t wait to see what you all build with it. Let’s go open-source affordable AI robotics!”

Just like TheRobotStudio and Hugging Face did last year with the launch of the first affordable AI-powered robot , those interested in building the robot arm can get a detailed step-by-step tutorial located on GitHub .

According to TechCrunch , compared to the previous model, SO-100, the new robotic arm SO-101, is faster to build and includes improved features like friction reduction and the capability of sustaining its own weight.

The robot includes and camera and can be trained through the technique of reinforcement learning—a type of machine learning in which a robot “learns” by trial and error.

The first model gained popularity in the market, and many YouTubers have shared videos showing how to build them. The main use of SO-100 is educational, but it has also been used for research, industrial tasks, and personal projects.