What’s that screeching sound?Does this make you nostalgic?Source: Digital TrendsHearing the screeching sound of the old dial-up struggling to connect to the internet.Remember those days? Fighting with siblings for a turn on the one family computer.Slow websites. Frozen pages. Dropped connections. The early days of the internet were rough.But if you had the foresight to invest in AOL during those days, you could’ve made good money. AOL went from a few bucks a share in 1997 to nearly $100/share (split-adjusted) by 2000, before merging with Time Warner and dropping during the dot-com bubble.Source: Seeking AlphaOf course, that’s not the only example.Investors who backed new types of companies like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), and Cisco Systems (CSCO) when the web was in its infancy made life-changing money.The lesson: It paid to make smart bets on the internet when it was still messy.Crypto is a lot like the early days of the internet.Not user friendly. Messy. Takes effort to navigate.According to Chief Analyst Stephen McBride, that’s our opportunity.“All groundbreaking new technologies suck at the beginning.”Crypto’s come a long way in the last few years.There are now 562 million crypto holders worldwide — a number that grew 33% in 2024.But there’s still a long way to go. Stephen:Today, the crypto user experience sucks.There’s no way a billion people will use crypto in its current form. And that’s our opportunity.Just like the internet, crypto will become much easier to use. This is going to attract hundreds of millions of new users, fueling years of rapid growth for crypto businesses.By investing now, you can set yourself up to profit from this growth. The vast majority of investors won’t put the effort in. That’s why they’ll only ever read about the big money crypto investors can make.The frustrating user experience means we’re still very early to crypto.And keep in mind… crypto is still tiny.Relative to real estate, the S&P 500, and gold… crypto is barely a blip:In fact, Microsoft (MSFT) — one company — is larger than the entire crypto market. So is Nvidia (NVDA). And Apple (AAPL) isn’t far behind.So crypto is new(ish), small, and rapidly improving.That makes it a great source of potentially asymmetric returns.In investing, “asymmetric” means the potential upside of an investment is much greater than the potential downside.Symmetric investing is when an investor risks $500 for a chance to make $500. Or $10,000 for a chance to make $10,000.Asymmetric investing is risking $500 for the chance to make $10,000.Of course, booking 1,000%+ gains is easier said than done, and it requires taking greater risk.That’s why asymmetric investments should be no more than a small part of your overall portfolio. Stephen recommends putting only 1%–2% into crypto, max.Is bitcoin (BTC) still an asymmetric opportunity?Depends on the time frame.Bitcoin trades for about $109,000 right now. Stephen expects it to hit at least $200,000 in the next 12 months. That’s about double. Symmetric.Given time, could bitcoin reach $1 million? If its adoption curve continues, absolutely. But it’s highly unlikely to shoot up 10X or more quickly, as small cryptos often do.Stephen says the #1 asymmetric opportunity today is in the smaller, lesser-known cryptos.He wrote about 3 such cryptos in this report.The crypto market is still so small and so new, there’s room for exponential growth.— RiskHedge ResearchWhat the Dot-com era can tell us about crypto today was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Adapt Fast — Ethereum’s Gas Problem Gets a SolutionContinue reading on Coinmonks »

We are staring at the biggest financial evolution since the advent of the Internet.Continue reading on Coinmonks »

[Our AI Business Services] — [Advertise with Us!]This week, we share our case study about how Duolingo became an AI powerhouse and why it’s eyeing all subjects next. The Senate just gave states the green light to regulate AI. Meanwhile, deepfakes are exploding across the internet, and it’s only getting worse. Let’s dive in, and as always, stay curious.

• How Duolingo Became an AI Company
• 📰 News and Trends.
• Senate Removes AI Regulation Ban from Megabill
• 🧰 AI Tools — Architecture
• Deep in the Deepfake Economy
• 🧠 Learning Corner — DeepLearning Wizard

📰 AI News and Trends

• Tech companies are missing revenue as 97% of consumers use AI for free
• Apple Weighs Using Anthropic or OpenAI to Power Siri in Major Reversal
• Grammarly to Acquire Superhuman to Accelerate Its AI Productivity Platform
• How generative AI could help make construction sites safer
• Anthropic’s revenue reached a pace of $4 billion annually, or $333 million per month, up almost four times from the start of the year.

🌐 Other Tech news

• CATL, the world’s largest electric vehicle battery maker, plans to bring its battery-swapping technology to Europe
• Amazon Is on the Cusp of Using More Robots Than Humans in Its Warehouses
• Google makes first foray into fusion in venture with MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems
• China’s giant new gamble with digital IDs

Senate Removes AI Regulation Ban from MegabillIn a 99–1 vote, the U.S. Senate struck down a proposed 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation that was part of President Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill. The amendment, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), restores states’ power to regulate AI technologies.Key Points:

• The AI regulation ban would’ve prevented states from accessing a new $500M AI infrastructure fund.
• Major tech firms like Google and OpenAI supported the ban, favoring federal-only oversight to avoid fragmented laws.
• The final tax bill passed 51–50, but the AI restriction was removed.
• Democrats and GOP governors united against the moratorium, citing child safety, robocalls, and deepfake threats.
• Sen. Blackburn said states must act until Congress passes laws like the Kids Online Safety Act.

The Senate’s move signals growing bipartisan concern about the risks of unregulated AI, and a shift toward state-led protections amid stalled federal legislation.How Duolingo Became an AI CompanyFrom Gamified Language App to EdTech LeaderDuolingo was founded in 2009 by Luis von Ahn, a Guatemalan-American entrepreneur and software developer, after selling his previous company, reCAPTCHA, to Google. Duolingo started as a free app that gamified language learning. By 2017, it had over 200 million users, but was still perceived as a “fun app,” rather than a serious educational tool. That perception shifted rapidly with their AI-first pivot, which began in 2018.🎯 Why Duolingo Invested in AI

• Scale: Teaching 500M+ learners across 40+ languages required personalized instruction that human teachers could not match, and Luis von Ahn knew from first experience that learning a second language required a lot more than a regular class.
• Engagement: Gamification helped, as it makes learning fun and engaging, but personalization drives long-term retention.
• Cost Efficiency: AI tutors allow a freemium model to scale without increasing headcount.
• Competition: Emerging AI tutors (like ChatGPT, Khanmigo, etc.) threatened user retention.

“We realized we weren’t just a language app — we were an AI education platform.”
 — Luis von Ahn, CEO, 2023🧠 How Duolingo Uses AI Today🚀 Product Milestone: Duolingo MaxDuolingo Max is a new subscription tier above Super Duolingo that gives learners access to two brand-new features and exercises, launched in March 2023 and powered by GPT-4 via OpenAI. Its features include:

• Roleplay: Chat with fictional characters in real-life scenarios (ordering food, job interviews, etc.)
• Explain My Answer: AI breaks down why your response was wrong in a conversational tone.

Result: 4x increase in daily active users of premium tier + 30% increase in time spent on app📊 Business ImpactShare🧩 The Duolingo AI FlywheelUser Interactions → AI Learns Mistakes & Patterns → Generates Smarter Lessons → Boosts Engagement & Completion → Feeds Back More Data → Repeat.This feedback loop lets them improve faster than human content teams could manage.🧠 In-House AI Research

• Duolingo AI Research Team: Includes NLP PhDs and ML engineers.
• Published papers on:
• Language proficiency modeling
• Speech scoring
• AI feedback calibration
• AI stack includes open-source tools (PyTorch), reinforcement learning frameworks, and OpenAI APIs.

📌 What Startups and SMBs Can Learn

1. Start with Real Problems
   → Duolingo didn’t bolt on AI — they solved pain points like “Why did I get this wrong?” or “This is too easy.”
2. Train AI on Your Own Data
   → Their models are fine-tuned on billions of user interactions, making feedback hyper-relevant.
3. Mix AI with Gamification
   → AI adapts what is shown, but game mechanics make you want to show up.
4. Keep Human Touchpoints
   → AI tutors didn’t replace everything — Duolingo still uses human-reviewed translations and guidance where accuracy is critical.

🧪 The Future of Duolingo AI

• Math & Music Apps: AI tutors now extend to subjects beyond language.
• Voice & Visual AI: Using Whisper and potentially multimodal tools for richer interaction.
• Custom GPTs: May soon let educators create their own AI tutors using Duolingo’s engine.

Duolingo’s AI pivot is a masterclass in data-driven transformation. Instead of launching an “AI feature,” they rebuilt the engine of their product around intelligence, adaptivity, and personalization. As we become more device-oriented and our attention gets more limited, gamification can improve any app’s engagement numbers, especially when there are proven results. Now the company will implement the same strategy to teach many other subjects, potentially turning it into a complete learning platform.Share🧠 Learning Corner.DeepLearning Wizard — A hands-on, code-first resource that teaches deep learning, machine learning, and PyTorch from the ground up.What makes it good:

• Clear math + code explanations
• Step-by-step guides for building neural networks
• Great for beginners who want to go deeper technically

Deep in the Deepfake EconomySmall businesses are under siege from a new wave of AI-powered scams. From fake job listings to cloned websites and deepfake video calls, scammers are using generative AI to deceive at scale, and it’s working.Stats:

• Since ChatGPT’s 2022 launch, GenAI-enabled scams have quadrupled.
• 25% of small businesses faced at least one AI scam in the past year.
• Microsoft blocks 1.6M+ bot signups per hour.
• A finance clerk at Arup was tricked by deepfaked coworkers into approving a $25M transfer.
• Oishya, a Japanese knife brand, had a scam clone site defraud 100+ customers.
• On Amazon, AI-written books dominate bestseller lists using fake reviews.
• Recruiters now face an epidemic of deepfake candidates faking video interviews.

AI tools can cheaply and convincingly mimic websites, voices, and identities. Scammers now operate like startups, scaling fast, lowering costs, and targeting more victims across industries.What Can We Do:

• Verify IDs before interviews.
• Use tools like Spokeo and Beyond Identity to authenticate users.
• Educate customers about scam detection.
• Watch out for too-good-to-be-true offers with AI-polished visuals.

AI isn’t just building businesses, it’s also arming scammers. As one cybersecurity expert put it: “This is the industrial revolution for scams.”Leave a comment🧰 AI ToolsArchitecture

• Spacemaker (by Autodesk) — Uses AI to optimize building layouts based on sunlight, wind, noise, and zoning. Site planning and early-stage development
• Hypar — Automates architectural workflows using generative design functions. Parametric design and rapid prototyping for commercial buildings
• ArkDesign.ai — AI-powered floorplan and room layout generator from natural language prompts. Quick residential layouts and conceptual design
• LookX AI — AI-generated architectural visualizations from sketches or references. High-end renders, facade studies, and aesthetic inspiration
• TestFit — AI-driven feasibility studies for multifamily, industrial, and urban developments

Download our list of 1000+ Tools for free.🤖How Duolingo Became an AI Company was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.