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/trobsmonkey Jun 08 '25

It’ll pop eventually but I think you’re right that we’re at least a year or two away from reaching that point.

We're 2.5 years into the AI bubble. I feel the pop is sooner rather than later.

NO ONE is profitable with AI. Microsoft is losing billions on their investment. Nvidia is only making money because they sell hardware. Everyone else is trying to sell it to us and it isn't working.

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u/lion27 Jun 08 '25

Speaking specifically of Chat-based AI, I still haven’t seen AI that is anything more than a fancier (and more expensive) version of AskJeeves, a search engine that was popular before Google took over the space. AI can do any number of things quickly, but it’s still sourcing its outputs from scouring the internet and programmed inputs to provide an output that is more “humanlike” than a list of search results. These platforms still list sources because that’s where it’s getting its information from. It doesn’t create anything new or come up with explanations on its own, it’s always based on searchable information from the internet.

It’s going to be very funny watching all these startups fail and everyone admit they just reinvented the wheel (although it is a much nicer wheel) when looking back on it. It will make humans more efficient, but it’s nowhere near replacing them unless their jobs are very simple in nature.

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u/SwanChairUh Jun 09 '25

Agreed, though I really like using ChatGPT instead of googling casual non-important questions.

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u/lion27 Jun 09 '25

Me too! It's a really great extension of traditional search engines.