Duolingo deletes all TikTok videos after “AI-first” backlash
Duolingo’s very vocal social media team has a bizarre message for the company’s CEO following the announcement that the popular language learning app is putting artificial intelligence (AI) first.
Image by Cybernews
Duolingo’s very vocal social media team has a bizarre message for the company’s CEO following the announcement that the popular language learning app is putting artificial intelligence (AI) first.
The world’s most popular and arguably most annoying language learning app, Duolingo, has deleted all of its videos on TikTok, signalling to the masses that employees are unhappy with the company’s AI-first initiative.
The language learning app, which has almost 17 million followers, removed all its videos, leaving only one.
The video, captioned “Duolingo was never funny. We were,” is set up like a video from the hacktivist group Anonymous.
@duolingo DUOLINGO WAS NEVER FUNNY. WE WERE.
♬ original sound - Duolingo
“Hello world,” says a member of Duolingo’s social media team wearing a mask of the company’s mascot with a third eye.
“It’s time that you learn the truth, enough is enough,” the employee continues, “I’ve had it with the CEOs and those in power. It’s time we show them who’s in charge.”
The employee claims that they taught Duolingo’s mascot, Duo, everything it knows, and now “everything came crashing down with one single post about AI.”
The anonymous employee claims that the time when the social media team killed off Duo was not a stunt, but a signal.
Duolingo announced its plans to transition to an “AI-first” company, which comes with various sacrifices, including phasing out its contractors.
The “all-hands email” from Duolingo’s co-founder and CEO, Luis von Ahn, says that AI will help the company get “closer to its mission” by creating a “massive amount of content,” and doing that manually “doesn’t scale.”
“One of our best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI,” von Ahn said in the email.
The language learning company promised that this shift won’t compromise its employees as it “cares deeply” about them.
“This isn’t about replacing Duos with AI,” the company said, “it’s about removing bottlenecks so we can do more with the outstanding Duos we already have.”
The email suggests that AI would only be used to automate “repetitive tasks,” which would allow employees to “focus on creative work and real problems.”
However, this is already flawed, as Duolingo said that it would be getting rid of its contractors and replacing them with AI.
Social media users expressed their outrage regarding the change, and many commended Duolingo’s social media team for having “empathy towards others losing their jobs.”
“I'm watching Duolingo get ruined, and begging users to keep using their app is heartwarming. It’s almost like humans have empathy towards others losing their jobs from exploitative AI,” one user said on X.
Another user explained that they’re deleting their Duolingo app as “the quality is no longer there” and they “do not support their AI first (profit first) new mission statement.”
“Me watching what announcing AI has done to Duolingo’s brand… If you’re thinking about using AI-generated creators, you may want to rethink that.”
Me watching what announcing AI has done to duolingo’s brand…
undefined Madelyn Casey | UGC✨ (@UGCmadelync) May 19, 2025
If you’re thinking about using AI generated creators, you may want to rethink that. pic.twitter.com/nXoMfPjYZv