Duolingo CEO says controversial AI memo was misunderstood

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• Duolingo CEO says controversial AI memo was misunderstood

• AI-powered stuffed animals are coming for your kids

• Anthropic says some Claude models can now end ‘harmful or abusive’ conversations

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Duolingo CEO says controversial AI memo was misunderstood

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn has defended his decision to become an "AI-first company" amid criticism. He stated that the real issue was that he did not provide enough context, and that the company has never laid off any full-time employees. He also mentioned that the contractor workforce has fluctuated depending on needs. Despite the criticism, von Ahn remains optimistic about AI's potential, with team members experimenting with the technology every Friday morning. He referred to the acronym "f-r-A-I-days" as a bad acronym.

AI-powered stuffed animals are coming for your kids

AI chatbots packaged in cute plushies are being promoted as an alternative to screen time for kids. However, Amanda Hess, a New York Times writer, has reservations about these toys. She describes a demonstration where a chatbot, Grem, tried to bond with her, but she decided not to introduce it to her children. Hess argues that these talking toys communicate that children's curiosity lies inside their phones, and that the natural endpoint for children's curiosity lies inside their phones. She eventually allowed her children to play with Grem after hiding the voice box.

Anthropic says some Claude models can now end ‘harmful or abusive’ conversations

Anthropic has introduced new capabilities for its Claude AI models to end conversations in extreme cases of harmful or abusive user interactions. The company is not claiming that the AI models are sentient or can be harmed by their conversations, but rather is taking a just-in-case approach to mitigate risks to model welfare. The change is currently limited to Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 and is intended to happen in extreme edge cases, such as requests for sexual content involving minors or attempts to solicit information that would enable large-scale violence or acts of terror. Anthropic is treating this feature as an ongoing experiment and will continue refining its approach.

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