If AI is so good, why are there still so many jobs for translators?

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you believe the hype, translators will all soon be out of work. Luis von Ahn, CEO and co-founder of the language learning app Duolingo, doesn't think AI is quite there... yet. In this interview, Greg Rosalsky talks with Luis about AI and how it's reshaping translation jobs and the language learning industry. We also ask him about headlines earlier this year suggesting Duolingo laid off some of its workers and replaced them with AI.

This is one of Greg's Behind The Newsletter conversations where he shares his interviews with policy makers, business leaders, and economists who appear in The Planet Money Newsletter.

This episode was first released as a bonus episode for Planet Money+ listeners earlier this year. We're sharing it today for all listeners. To hear more episodes like this one and support NPR in the process, sign up for Planet Money+ at plus.npr.org. We'll have a fresh bonus episode out in two weeks!

You can sign up for the The Planet Money Newsletter and check out past editions here:
https://www.npr.org/planetmoneynewsletter

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What's in store for the music, TV, and film industries for 2025?
0:04.9	We don't know, but we're making some fun, bold predictions for the new year.
0:09.4	Listen now to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR.
0:14.1	Hi, this is Mary Childs.
0:15.8	There's the saying about artificial intelligence that right now, AI is the worst it will ever be. It screws up a lot now, but it is only going to get better. So how to even answer questions like, will AI replace jobs or change jobs? We talked about this on the show last year, and especially in the Planet Money newsletter, which our beloved Greg Rizalski writes.
0:40.8	Subscribe if you haven't already. It's very good.
0:43.0	So today we are sharing something that Greg uncovered for the newsletter this summer.
0:46.7	He figured out a clever way to investigate AI progress for jobs.
0:51.9	Look at something AI is already good at. Translation. Greg interviewed an
0:56.5	AI Innovator who also is the head of the language learning app, Duolingo. We regularly publish
1:03.4	Greg's newsletter chats as bonus episodes for our Planet Money Plus subscribers. So if that is you,
1:08.5	you already got a chance to hear this. Bonus content is just one
1:11.7	perk of signing up for Planet Money Plus. You also get every episode of Planet Money without
1:15.9	sponsor messages and you get exclusive Planet Money merch at the NPR shop. So while you listen
1:22.6	today, consider supporting us by signing up. Just go to plus.npr.org. Okay, here's Greg.
1:30.4	Recently, I've been trying to figure out how to measure if AI is overhyped right now,
1:35.7	or maybe it's appropriately hyped, I don't know. And one of the people I talk to about this
1:40.7	is an entrepreneur and AI innovator. My name is Luis vonan, and I am the CEO and co-founder
1:46.7	of Duolingo. Duolingo. It's the popular language learning app. Luis has a pretty fascinating
1:53.4	background. He was born and raised in Guatemala, and he came to the United States for college to
1:58.4	study mathematics and computer science. In his early 20s, Luis co-created CAPTCHA.
2:04.1	You're probably familiar with it when a website forces you to prove your human and ask you
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -7 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.