Coursera vs Duolingo

Announcing Project Helix: A skills platform for the AI era

At Coursera and Udemy’s first global FWD customer event as a combined company, we previewed Project Helix, our new AI-native skills platform — along with new AI-powered capabilities across Coursera and Udemy.

Three AI Pioneers Argue for Keeping AI Open

At the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrew Ng debated AI openness and safety. All three argued broadly for preserving openness in AI, though they differed on tactics: Hinton warned that releasing model weights ('open-weight models') makes misuse easier and said the era of open weights is already established; Ng emphasized preventing gatekeepers and promoting multiple competing providers — warning of geopolitical consequences if low-cost models dominate; Li called for nuanced, layered openness and public-private collaboration. All three also said some regulation is necessary to steer AI development.

• Geoffrey Hinton, Fei-Fei Li, and Andrew Ng spoke at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas advocating for keeping AI open.
• Hinton distinguished open-source code from open-weight models, warned open weights make it easier to misuse foundation models, and said 'the battle’s been lost' because open-weight models are now widespread.
• Andrew Ng argued for promoting openness to avoid gatekeepers, maintain multiple providers, and warned about geopolitical and market risks if low-cost models from other countries gain dominance.

Zapier CEO Grades PMs on AI Fluency Rubric

Zapier has released version 2 of its AI Fluency Rubric, which evaluates employees on mindset, strategy, building, and accountability. CEO Wade Foster explains the rubric's evolution and grading criteria in a podcast episode. The article details the history of AI fluency, from GPT-4's launch to internal memos at Microsoft, Meta, and Duolingo. It provides examples of 'Capable', 'Adoptive', and 'Transformative' ratings, emphasizing that the floor has moved and what was transformative in 2024 is now just adoptive in 2026. Foster also shares his personal 'robot staff' automations and stresses the importance of labeling AI-generated work and maintaining accountability.

• Zapier published version 2 of its AI Fluency Rubric on March 31, 2026.
• The rubric evaluates employees on mindset, strategy, building, and accountability.
• Wade Foster, CEO of Zapier, grades PM work products live on a podcast.

Groq Founder: Poor Leadership Cost Company Years

Jonathan Ross, founder of AI chip maker Groq, admitted in a podcast that his management failures initially cost the company three to four years. A former Google engineer, Ross founded Groq in 2016 to develop Language Processing Units (LPUs) as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs. He acknowledged being 'a terrible leader' at the start, citing mistakes in hiring employees who were not self-sufficient and giving them too much responsibility, leading to stagnation. He learned to focus on people management and became more selective in hiring. In December 2025, Nvidia signed a $20 billion licensing and talent deal with Groq, after which Ross and other key engineers moved to Nvidia, where Ross now serves as chief architect for software. Groq continues as an independent company led by Adam Winter. Similar leadership challenges were shared by Figma CEO Dylan Field and Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn.

• Jonathan Ross founded Groq in 2016 to develop AI inference chips (LPUs) as alternatives to Nvidia GPUs.
• Ross admitted that his poor leadership set back Groq by three to four years.
• In December 2025, Nvidia signed a $20 billion license and talent deal with Groq.

Brawl Stars and Duolingo Launch Crossover Event

Supercell and Duolingo have launched a global crossover event featuring Brawl Stars' character Spike and Duolingo's mascot Duo. Running from September 19 to September 30, the event follows playful social media rivalry. In Brawl Stars, Duo becomes a boss in a new 20v1 game mode, while Spike appears in Duolingo as part of a limited-time Quest. Completing Duolingo challenges unlocks Spike in Brawl Stars, encouraging cross-platform engagement with exclusive rewards and community events. This partnership highlights the trend of cross-promotional marketing between mobile games and consumer apps. AppMagic estimates Duolingo has generated $2.62 billion in lifetime IAP revenue, while Brawl Stars has earned $2.42 billion. Duolingo previously ran crossovers with Genshin Impact and Angry Birds.

• Supercell and Duolingo announced a crossover between Brawl Stars and Duolingo, running from September 19-30.
• Duo becomes a boss in a new 20v1 Brawl Stars game mode, while Spike appears in Duolingo as a limited-time Quest.
• Completing Duolingo challenges unlocks Spike in Brawl Stars, encouraging cross-platform engagement.