Overview
*REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS AT CAPACITY AND NOW CLOSED*
Bloomberg, Cornell Tech, and Tech:NYC invite you to join us for the latest installment of the Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg Speaker Series, featuring Luis von Ahn, Co-founder & CEO of Duolingo, in conversation with Scarlet Fu of Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Quicktake.
Shortly after earning his doctorate degree at Carnegie Mellon University, von Ahn kickstarted his career by building an online game that ended up being useful for reverse image search and that he later sold to Google. Not long after, he created a digital security program now widely known as CAPTCHA — which he then developed into the reCAPTCHA service — to help digitize thousands of texts and books online.
Those early interests evolved into the inception of Duolingo, the free language app launched in 2011 that now boasts more than 60 million monthly active users and more than 100 courses across 40 distinct languages. Last year, it launched Duolingo Math to expand its course offerings, and earlier this year, it introduced Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4 to leverage AI to deliver highly-personalized language lessons, accessible English proficiency testing, and more.
As one of the very few Latino founders of a major U.S. tech company, von Ahn considers diversity and inclusion as core business imperatives — many of the company’s most senior leaders are Hispanic, and the firm has had an near 50-50 gender ratio in engineering hires over the past few years.
We hope you’ll join us for this conversation, in which von Ahn will discuss his Guatemalan roots, Duolingo’s position as the leading global learning platform, how it is pioneering the field of educational AI, and how its viral TikTok account is expanding access to language education.
Twitter: @TechAtBloomberg
Facebook: Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg
Agenda
- 5:30PM
Cocktail reception begins
- 6:00PM
Doors close, conversation starts
- 6:45PM
Audience Q&A
- 7:00PM
Networking and hors d’oeuvres to follow
- 7:45PM
Last Call/Bar Closes
PLEASE NOTE: Seating is limited and registered attendees will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors close promptly at the top of the hour. Individuals arriving late may be turned away from the building. No walk-ins will be allowed.
*REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS AT CAPACITY AND NOW CLOSED*
Speaker
Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn is an entrepreneur and computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University who is considered one of the pioneers of crowdsourcing. He is known for co-inventing CAPTCHAs, being a MacArthur Fellow, and selling two companies to Google in his 20s.
He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, a language-learning platform with the mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. With over 60 million monthly active users, it is the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world.
Luis has been named one of the 10 Most Brilliant Scientists by Popular Science, one of the 50 Best Brains in Science by Discover, one of the Top Young Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review, and one of the 100 Most Innovative People in Business by Fast Company.
When & Where
- Bloomberg
- Cornell Tech
- Tech:NYC