Duolingo found an innovative way to inform investors up on their efforts embedding artificial intelligence as an online educational tool for learning foreign languages.
During its third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, the company had a generative AI chatbot named “Lily” briefly step in for CEO and co-founder Luis von Ahn to summarize the results in a quick video that allegedly took just seven minutes to create. It was meant as a demonstration of a new product that lets users practice speaking with what it calls a “sassy” conversational partner in an unscripted and impromptu manner to build confidence speaking in another tongue.
“We wanted to give an example of how generative AI is positively impacting more and more aspects of our business,” said finance chief Matthew Skaruppa. “We’re using it to make our product more fun, engaging and effective through features like Video Call with Lily.”
AI is one of those buzzwords that corporate executives love to dollop generously into their speech when conversing with investors. All too often, however, there’s little in the way of actual substance.
Duolingo however has been integrating artificial intelligence into its product development before AI even became a thing, collaborating with OpenAI since September 2022, more than two months prior to the launch of ChatGPT. Von Ahn himself received his doctorate at Carnegie Mellon, one of the premier universities for AI alongside Stanford.
‘Killer feature’
Duolingo uses GPT-4 as part of its Duolingo Max premium-tier subscription service. Here you could practice a conversation ordering food and drinks at a Parisian café with “Oscar,” an animated AI chatbot.
“I’m glad Lily was able to cover for me,” said von Ahn, who praised the AI chatbot as a “killer feature” for Duolingo Max. “She’s doing part of my job now. Over time, she’s going to do more and more of my job, and I can just retire.” (Ironically, AI is proving more effective at real-time translation, reducing at least some of the need for users to learn a foreign language.)
Duolingo’s idea of integrating GenAI into its call is certainly novel, although it may be somewhat of an stretch when Skaruppa describes a conversation with “Lily” as fun.
With her long purple hair obstructing half her face and matching lilac-colored eyeshadow, the chatbot looked, acted, and sounded like a bored emo teenager irritated she must waste her time on anything as prosaic an earnings call.
“Hi everyone. So Luis asked me to cover for him. Lucky me,” Lily began in a less than enthusiastic tone, finishing with what the company calls her “classic” eyeroll. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Not exactly what you want to hear from your GenAI conversation partner. Yet Duolingo said the approach works, with Lily their most popular character after Duo the owl. According to the company her humor and wit make the experience memorable rather than predictable, which helps keep users engaged while learning a new language.
“Her personality resonates strongly with our learners,” the company told Fortune. “Her sassy, sarcastic tone and relatable ‘bored teenager’ vibe gives learners an amusing and approachable partner.”
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