Ideas worth spreading

Massive-scale online collaboration

1,840,055 views |

Luis von Ahn |

TEDxCMU

• April 2011

After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. In this talk, he shares how his ambitious new project, Duolingo, will help millions learn a new language while translating the web quickly and accurately -- all for free.

After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. In this talk, he shares how his ambitious new project, Duolingo, will help millions learn a new language while translating the web quickly and accurately -- all for free.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCMU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Learn a new language with Duolingo, a free, collaborative online tool.

About the speaker

Luis von Ahn

Educational equity technologist

See speaker profile

Crowdsourcing pioneer and Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn built the world's most downloaded education app on a mission to make quality education available to everyone.

Learn more

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Find a TEDx event near you

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCMU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Learn a new language with Duolingo, a free, collaborative online tool.