May 2, 2024· 51 min

Luis von Ahn Explains How Computers and Humans Learn From Each Other

Orality
Model
50%

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(1,671 words)
M:28%
HostTracy Alloway(2,546 words)
M:94%
GuestLuis von Ahn(5,445 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic41%
obviously, clearly, very
Engagement80%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, so, okay
Repetition100%
like (138x), know (105x), it's (78x)
Parallelism100%
So have you heard the story ab..., And I'm Joe Weisenthal...., So we're talk you know, you co...
Sound Patterns45%
47 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases4%
you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging8%
could, perhaps, maybe
Passive Voice8%
being used, was written, is distorted
Abstract Nouns15%
investment, prescription, medication
Subordination6%
because, since, whereas
Sentence Length41%
Avg: 15.2 words/sentence
Word Complexity46%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style20%
838 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style95%
automatically, family, recently

Description

Breakthroughs in generative AI have created enormous opportunities for humans to learn from computers. We can use them to explain the news, understand historical concepts, fix our coding errors, and so forth. But of course, AI also has to learn from human. The technology digests enormous amounts of written text, and often relies on human feedback to calibrate its models. Luis von Ahn has been at the forefront of these back and forth interactions for years. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of Duolingo, the language learning app, but prior to that, he was one of the original developers of CAPTCHAs, the little puzzles you solve to log into websites and prove that you're a human. And of course, in the process of proving your humanity, you're also training computers to get better at identifying red lights, cross walks, bicycles and wavy letters. On this episode, we discuss the history of his work, the future of CAPTCHAs, the success of Duolingo and how he is using today's advanced AI models in aid of language learnings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.