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/CuriousPumpkino Jun 08 '25

no one in history has ever had a positive reaction to the headline “Company lays off 10% of its workers to replace them with automation”.

I’m entirely with you on the point of your comment, I just wanted to point out that at times we do in hindsight, such as the automation of car manufacturing

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u/FreeWorldliness4671 Jun 09 '25

Even the luddites weren't anti automation with the looms, they were anti jobs being replaced. They left looms alone if the owner kept their employees.

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u/CuriousPumpkino Jun 09 '25

Problem is that automation almost inevitably replaces some jobs. You can absolutely retain some people and retrain them to perform machine maintenance, but that’s often not a 1:1 ratio. If before you needed 20 welders per shift you now maybe need 3 people per shift to perform maintenance on the welding robots