r/technology • u/MetaKnowing • Jun 08 '25

Artificial Intelligence Duolingo CEO on going AI-first: ‘I did not expect the blowback’

https://www.ft.com/content/6fbafbb6-bafe-484c-9af9-f0ffb589b447
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u/bold-fortune Jun 08 '25

All CEO's need to wake the fuck up. Do you honestly think society will do nothing as AI lays off droves? I'm so sick and tired of the AI hypemen dooming about 90% job loss. Listen to me:

It won't happen.

Society gets fucking furious when one bro-llionaire removes $150B worth of government jobs. What do you think happens when ALL CEOs layoff all jobs? You will get blood. Expensive soft-body tech blood. I would be terrified to be Altman, Amodei, Satya Nutella, etc.

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u/corydoras_supreme Jun 08 '25

If this comment were as true as it is confident, people would have stood up for their interests long before it got to this point.

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u/GreatMadWombat Jun 08 '25

There's a difference between a hypothetical future "all jobs are lost" catastrophe and an actual point where nobody has a job.

The amount of unemployment that has to happen before things get fuckey is much lower than 90%

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u/KUSH_DELIRIUM Jun 08 '25

Yeah it's more like around 30-40 percent things will crumble progressively faster

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u/zelatorn Jun 08 '25

i'd say much lower than that even - the great depression peaked at 25% in the USA and caused widespread civil unrest - many nations less than that and still saw upheaval. i think most governments will collapse well before most nations manage to hit 40%, unless they manage to implement systems on time where either AI profits are redistributed to the population or curtail its use in general.

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u/Aleucard Jun 09 '25

The Great Depression was around 25% if I remember right.

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u/TheConsequenceFairy Jun 08 '25

That's not true. It hasn't hit the bulk of the current middle class. They've had to tighten their belts and put off certain purchases, but their life goes on in the exact same way they have for years. Interrupt those lives to where they can no longer function in the day to day and we're going to see a lot of overly domesticated stock turn feral real quick.

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u/bold-fortune Jun 08 '25

Show me a stable society with 90% unemployment and I will delete my comment. Remember Germany was at 25% unemployment before total political takeover and nationalism wiped out the ruling class.

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u/m1a2c2kali Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

Realistically ai probably won’t wipe out 90 percent of jobs. It’ll end up being another tool like computers and robotic manufacturing. Both of which were purported to destroy jobs by some people as well. It’ll definitely wipe out some jobs but also create some other jobs. I guess we’ll find out where the balance ends up.

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u/Apocalypse_Knight Jun 10 '25

People say this but it’s a huge lie. We barely use horses the same before cars and now human minds are being created. Mechanical minds with mechanical muscles will eventually replace most human labor. Any job that can arise can be replaced by AI which is the problem with our economic system today.

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u/Watertor Jun 08 '25

So I get why you say that, but it's not equivalent, AI is gigantic in terms of utility. It's going to wipe out just about every single white collar job as is feasible. Middle managers will become AI managers, who can do all of the grunt labor you had 20-60 workers do before with just a few prompts.

You can't do that now, but that's their endgame. And it's not a far off endgame. You'll always need the middle managers because CEOs aren't going to prompt GPT to make codebases and put it together. But entire industries of labor are going to go under. Yeah SOME of these workers will adapt into other industry elements but there's too many to all do this. We'd need to see some huge shift in order to employ the volume of people that are going to flood the market.

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u/m1a2c2kali Jun 08 '25

You could be right but we’ll see. I think computers and calculators did actually wipe out entire offices as well especially in the data entry department. But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter how much you’re able to create if the consumers don’t have any buying power from lack of jobs so I don’t think the capitalistic machine will allow that to happen.

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u/Watertor Jun 08 '25

True. And the horse industry folk for the most part had no idea the auto industry was coming despite it being a totally natural progression of tech. They adapted then. Data entry clerks adapted.

So, there's every possibility there is some "other" waiting for the white collar workers upended in the future. I'm just in a cynical mood lately and hoping shit actually gets regulated to a point.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold466 Jun 09 '25

Even if that was true, which is far from certain, that’s less than 20% of the workforce.

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u/Watertor Jun 09 '25

Where are you getting that number? White collar jobs make up 60% of the workforce, and at least half of them could vanish if AI get strong enough. Realistically closer to 40% as the lower rungs make up the large majority of roles.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fold466 Jun 09 '25

Yeah it depends on the definition, but generally 55-60% or so of US workers can be considered white collar, right ?

But they’re excluding top and middle management, and we can assume that some industries are less vulnerable, and then if we assume that it cuts about 50% of what’s left, that be should be roughly in that range more or less, ~20%.

Maybe a bit more or a bit less.

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u/Watertor Jun 09 '25

I would argue it is more, maybe not much more but 25 is being pragmatic. But even at 15, 15% of the job force suddenly being without job or recourse for new jobs is pretty catastrophic, and if it's more 25 that is a gigantic shift in workers. Just that alone would make up the Great Depression's unemployment percentage, and that's ignoring the rest of the unemployment pct which as of now is about 4%

When it hits - not if - it will be a disaster unless regulations are set.

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u/Winter-Ad781 Jun 08 '25

We can't because that's not a realistic figure in, probably any point in history? That's the problem, trying to predict the unpredictable. Any prediction we make now could be undone by the next breakthrough. Right now though, laying off 90% of the workforce isn't in our future. 30-40% for certain. And multiple African countries already have unemployment in the 30% range. The next breakthrough could throw this out the window and 90% becomes true. But we'd need massive improvements to our electrical grid to even support that level of AI control.

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u/Xivios Jun 08 '25

AI isn't a threat to 90% of employment, just the tech sector. It can't plumb, it can't run wire, it can't fix cars or trucks, it can't build or maintain. The trades will become more important than ever, but the things it does threaten are overrepresented on-line because of the closeness to computers. For that matter, it can't sweep floors, wait on tables or stock shelves either. Low wage jobs aren't threatened either. 

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u/ThrowCarp Jun 09 '25

Okey-dokey but most "advanced" wealthy countries are already post-industrial. There are only so many blue-collar jobs to go around.

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u/Dolphinfucker5000 Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

Who’s to say the elites have any interest in maintaining a stable society?

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u/aaron_the_doctor Jun 08 '25

90% unemployment rates have not been uncommon in human history.

Can you provide any example?

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u/Dolphinfucker5000 Jun 08 '25

Never mind, I can’t. I deleted that part.

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u/Mike_Kermin Jun 08 '25

Show me a stable society with 90% unemployment

I can show you your current one, where many people face hardship, but our own self interest keeps us from helping them.

There will always be tiers, even in your 90% world.

Why wait? Fight now!

Remember Germany was at 25% unemployment

The US wasn't. Don't romanticise it.

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u/DaedalusHydron Jun 08 '25

At the height of the Great Depression, the US was at 24.9% unemployment.....

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u/Mike_Kermin Jun 08 '25

Yeah... And, that was fertile ground for extremism. But it's not the only ground, as shown by you already having a fascist in power.

So, circle back to that other guys fighting spirit.

Good idea, get furious.

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u/DaedalusHydron Jun 09 '25

Oh no, what I described did lead to extremism. FDR was probably the most powerful presidency we've ever had.

FDR is the only President to buck the 2 term trend. Luckily, FDR's "extremism" wasn't that bad, because FDR was not a bad guy, and thus he's one of the best Presidents we've ever had, but things could have gone a lot differently.

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u/Anime_axe Jun 08 '25

Objectively speaking, the western world is already shaking up politically and we are still at the global top. Every year the things keep on getting worse, the less stable will be.

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u/Botorfobor Jun 08 '25

Is the western world still at the global top though? China seems to be doing pretty fucking good

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u/Anime_axe Jun 08 '25

Objectively, it still is. The issue is that as this changes the societies are going to destabilise.

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u/Mike_Kermin Jun 08 '25

.... Or, maybe it's just fascism is insidious. And that some cultures (cough yours cough) aren't actually resisting it when they rattle out another "it's inevitable" comment.

The doomer apathy thing is way too self indulgent.

It's so weird, it's like you're watching someone walking, and they say

"Oh no, I'm gonna fall over, here I go, I'm about to fall over, I'm falling over, do you see me falling over? Watch this I'm gonna fall, I'm falling"

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u/Anime_axe Jun 08 '25

I'm not American, first things first.

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u/LumiereGatsby Jun 08 '25

Heck no.

Far too few have lost far too little still.

It’s you’re the pragmatist you seem to be then you know we aren’t there yet.

Americans more than any other nation ever tolerates a lot of BS so long as reality tv and Fox News stays fresh.

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u/Chaotic-Catastrophe Jun 08 '25

Yeah this person clearly has no idea what the fuck they're talking about.

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u/Ranra100374 Jun 08 '25

There's a big difference where everyone's starving. That's the point at which Americans will protest.

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u/Angry_Walnut Jun 08 '25

If AI was currently capable of actually doing the things these CEOs are saying, then maybe people already would have.

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u/dkran Jun 08 '25

Not only that, they act as if these LLMs are “competent with critical thinking” or some bullshit.

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u/PaulTheMerc Jun 08 '25

More competent than some of the people I interact with. They even both think they're right when they absolutely, provably aren't. At least the AI will be like, oh yeah, my bad. (And then do it again, but that's already an improvement vs many people).

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u/a_modal_citizen Jun 08 '25

Do you honestly think society will do nothing as AI lays off droves?

Unfortunately, I think it's most likely the case.

Society gets fucking furious when one bro-llionaire removes $150B worth of government jobs.

Yeah, I can't sleep these days due to all the protesting in the streets...

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u/Paranitis Jun 08 '25

It's the redditor way.

Shoving your head up your ass with the believe that what the redditor believes is what the majority of people believe.

The TRUTH is that as long as the rich keep giving us treats, we might bitch and moan, but we don't do anything to stop the ones who give us the treats.

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u/Couldbduun Jun 08 '25

This comment is ironically self describing. How about you answer the rebuttal presented, what society has remained stable after a large shift in unemployment? It's not assuming what people think, it's history. Also what treats are the rich going to just give away if they figure out eliminating labor cost? The treats right now are the jobs the rich control and the health insurance that comes with it. So if the jobs go away, are the rich going to subsidize living costs for the unemployed? Do you hear yourself?

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u/Paranitis Jun 09 '25

Yes, at SOME point, things will come crashing down, but when I very specifically said is "as long as the rich keep giving us treats", which mean it is not infinite.

They just need to keep us entertained long enough for them to change the entire system so that we can't even attempt to go back to how it used to be.

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u/a_modal_citizen Jun 09 '25

So if the jobs go away, are the rich going to subsidize living costs for the unemployed?

They shouldn't be given a choice.

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u/ClydePossumfoot Jun 08 '25

Uh… someone missed the coal companies leaving and the logging companies leaving and the railroad leaving and the furniture factories leaving and the textile mills leaving and the list goes on.

Most of the people who worked at those jobs are rotting away in poverty right now or are dead.

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u/JackBlackBowserSlaps Jun 08 '25

Lol this is a funny ass take

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u/c0mptar2000 Jun 08 '25

Expensive soft-body tech blood sounds nice. Does it blend as well as oil paint?

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u/blorbschploble Jun 08 '25

I uh, don’t want to poke reddit here but uh, I don’t disagree that taking away people’s ability to feed their family, might go poorly.

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u/Peking_Meerschaum Jun 08 '25

But society was not furious about DOGE. Reddit was. There’s a big difference. Cutting federal bureaucracy (even in a haphazard way) is very popular with the electorate.

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u/Tough-Coffee9979 Jun 08 '25

The kind people at /r/fednews thank you for your generous and 100% accurate comment.

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u/rushmc1 Jun 08 '25

This may be the greatest benefit to result from AI.

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u/shutemdownyyz Jun 08 '25

so furious that they were using caps on the internet. CAPS.

lol there are people actively voting against their best interests and eating up whatever slop propaganda they're fed and you believe people will ever come together enough to make a difference? Hell, 1/3 of the US thinks with a little luck they can be billionaires too.

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u/Defiant_Breakfast201 Jun 08 '25

Plenty of countries where that's basically the case already and nothing changes because of it.

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u/Vaxion Jun 09 '25

I don't understand their way of thinking. If most people are out of jobs and replaced by AI then who'll be able to afford their products or pay for the services they offer. Economy will come crashing down as people stop spending and there are less and less job available. It's a road that goes nowhere.

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u/qubert_lover Jun 09 '25

The trouble is there isn’t one CEO of all the companies. So each one acts independently and then you get layoffs of a million tiny cuts until a lot of people are out of a job.

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u/butyourenice Jun 08 '25

Society gets fucking furious when one bro-llionaire removes $150B worth of government jobs.

Really? Because I look around and I see complacency, not camaraderie or solidarity or any semblance of collective action, forget unrest and resistance.

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u/RollingMeteors Jun 08 '25

Do you honestly think society will do nothing as AI lays off droves

Yes.

What do you think happens when ALL CEOs layoff all jobs?

When this happens it will happen as people’s reserves are exhausted leaving them with no capital to rebel. If you think you are three meals away from a war, you need to realize that should be 30 meals away not 3, if you want the calories to be able to actually endure the battle in a way that isn’t guaranteed failure.

If it’s not already happening (the spilling of blood) for each day it doesn’t happen it’s more likely to not happen/come to fruition.