Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn on AI, User Motivation, and Expanding Beyond Languages
When Luis von Ahn was 8 years old, growing up in Guatemala City, his mother bought him a computer. He was upset because he actually wanted a Nintendo, he recalls. “But you know, it changed my life because I learned how to use a computer.” Developing that skill eventually led to his creation of the educational app Duolingo, which is used by millions around the world to learn languages, and now other subjects, such as math and music.
- ▪When Luis von Ahn was 8 years old, growing up in Guatemala City, his mother bought him a computer.
- ▪He was upset because he actually wanted a Nintendo, he recalls.
- ▪“But you know, it changed my life because I learned how to use a computer.” Developing that skill eventually led to his creation of the educational app Duolingo, which is used by millions around the world to learn languages, and now other s
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| Original publisher | TIME — Top |
| Canonical URL | https://time.com/article/2026/07/26/duolingo-ceo-luis-von-ahn-interview/ |
| Publication time | Sun, 26 Jul 2026 16:07:11 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-26T16:13:10.863Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-26T16:13:18.958Z |
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| Cluster | psTFi8Ehx0lO |
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| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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When Luis von Ahn was 8 years old, growing up in Guatemala City, his mother bought him a computer. He was upset because he actually wanted a Nintendo, he recalls. “But you know, it changed my life because I learned how to use a computer.” Developing that skill eventually led to his creation of the educational app Duolingo, which is used by millions around the world to learn languages, and now other subjects, such as math and music. The company went public in 2021 and is currently valued at $5.7 billion. “Education has always been a big thing for me,” says von Ahn, 47. His mother, a doctor and single parent, didn’t earn much, but spent any spare money she had on ensuring von Ahn had access to the best education in Guatemala, he says.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at TIME — Top.
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