# Luis von Ahn

> Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan-American computer scientist and entrepreneur, co-founder, CEO and board chairman of Duolingo. His work on CAPTCHA, reCAPTCHA and the ESP Game explored how human participation could solve computing problems; Duolingo brought that interest in motivation to language learning and later other subjects. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006 and the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2018, and entered the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023.

- **Role:** Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Board Chairman at Duolingo
- **Organizations:** Duolingo, reCAPTCHA (former CEO), Carnegie Mellon University, Luis von Ahn Foundation
- **From:** Guatemala City, Guatemala
- **Nationality:** Guatemalan-American
- **Education:** American School of Guatemala, B.S. in Mathematics, Duke University, M.S. in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Ph.D. in Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
- **Known for:** Co-invented CAPTCHA., Created reCAPTCHA, acquired by Google in 2009., Developed the ESP Game, which generated image labels through play.

## Career timeline

- **1978** — Born in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
- **2000** — Graduated from Duke with a mathematics degree; began graduate study at Carnegie Mellon.
- **2000-2001** — Worked with the Carnegie Mellon team that developed CAPTCHA in response to Yahoo's automated-account problem.
- **2005** — Completed his Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. with the dissertation Human Computation, advised by Manuel Blum.
- **2006** — Received a MacArthur Fellowship; became an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon.
- **2007** — Began serving as CEO of reCAPTCHA.
- **2009** — Google acquired reCAPTCHA.
- **2011** — Co-founded Duolingo with Severin Hacker.
- **2012** — Duolingo opened to the public on June 19.
- **2018** — Received the Lemelson-MIT Prize.
- **2021** — Duolingo went public; the Luis von Ahn Foundation was established.
- **2023** — Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

## Achievements

- Co-invented CAPTCHA.
- Created reCAPTCHA, acquired by Google in 2009.
- Developed the ESP Game, which generated image labels through play.
- Co-founded Duolingo with Severin Hacker.
- MacArthur Fellow, 2006.
- Lemelson-MIT Prize recipient, 2018.
- National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, 2023.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Duolingo reported Q2 daily active user growth of 23% year over year. Von Ahn emphasized improving the product and prioritizing user growth and stated an ambition to teach a billion people.
- **2026-08** — Welcomed Sallie Krawcheck to Duolingo's board of directors.
- **2025-11** — Returned to Carnegie Mellon for its President's Lecture Series during CMU125 homecoming celebrations.
- **2025-04** — Duolingo announced 148 new language courses using generative AI and automation to expand production.

## Links

- Website: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-von-ahn-duolingo/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/LuisvonAhn
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luisvonahn

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/luis-von-ahn
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25