Did Duolingo Just Win the AI Backlash Game?

Back in April, Duolingo pulled the kind of stunt that makes the internet grab its pitchforks. They announced they were going “AI-first,” which is corporate speak for, “We’re letting the robots handle it, and some humans are going home early.” Within hours, streaks older than some people’s marriages were torched in protest. Users who had been religiously feeding that slightly unhinged green owl every day suddenly ghosted him like a bad Tinder date.

TikTok turned into a full-blown roast session. “Is this even a real person in your video or some creepy AI deepfake?” one commenter asked. And for once, Duolingo’s social team, normally the masters of petty comebacks, put down the flamethrower and switched to “calm PR mode,” which is basically the corporate equivalent of whispering, “Please stop yelling, the neighbors can hear.”

Fast forward and… plot twist… Duolingo didn’t just survive, it thrived. Q2 2025 revenue? $252.3 million. Yearly forecast? Over $1 billion. Stock price? Up more than 20%. Daily active users? 47.7 million. Paid subscribers? 10.9 million. Turns out people still want to learn how to say “My penguin wears pants” in Spanish, even if they’re mad at the owl.

CEO Luis von Ahn admitted the backlash slowed growth a smidge, but AI also doubled their course catalog to 148 languages, added video-call conversation practice, served up personalized feedback, and saved a bunch of money because robots don’t need coffee breaks, HR, or therapy after dealing with customer complaints.

Meanwhile, on TikTok, people are still accusing the videos of being AI-generated, and Duolingo just keeps chirping back, “Nope, real humans!” Which is hilarious, because some of those skits do have the vibe of being written by a chatbot that just discovered reality TV.

The moral? Internet outrage is like microwave popcorn: it’s loud, it’s messy, it smells weird, but it’s over in about three minutes. Duolingo didn’t crumble under the heat; they just sat there, watching the comments burn, while their subscription money rolled in.

Is this proof that online outrage now has the attention span of a goldfish on Red Bull, or are we all just too busy scrolling to stay mad? And be honest, did you really delete the app, or are you still secretly keeping that streak alive at 11:59 p.m. like the rest of us?

- Matt Masinga