How Duolingo uses AI in every part of its app

Language learning has surged during the pandemic. Duolingo, which is synonymous with gamified language learning, saw its fastest growth period this March, with a 101% global increase in new users. From those who simply have more time on their hands to students trying to keep up during the pandemic school year, the app is a huge boon. All that extra data isn't going to waste -- because Duolingo invested early in AI, the app keeps getting better as it grows beyond the 30 million monthly active users reported in December 2019. "One of the things people don't know is that even though Duolingo is very gamified and it just looks very cutesy, we actually record everything you do to try to basically have a model of what you know," Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn told VentureBeat. We spoke to von Ahn about all the ways Duolingo uses AI and then followed up with the company's research director, Burr Settles, who joined in 2013 (Duolingo was founded in 2012). "We hired this guy named Burr who has a Ph.D. in AI," von Ahn said when describing the company's first foray into AI. "He came in and the idea was'Try to figure out how to use AI to improve Duolingo.'" We've already done deep dives into how Duolingo uses AI to humanize virtual language lessons and to drive its English proficiency tests.