The Monthly Beat - June '25 Edition

A recap of the most interesting Pittsburgh tech news from the past few weeks and upcoming local tech events.

Good evening!

So glad you could make it. How was work? Long? Well then, come have a seat on my cyberpunk Lego couch and unwind as I relate to you the various happenings of the Pittsburgh tech scene from the past month.

Let’s get into it.

What Happened This Past Month

The Big Story

Duolingo Goes AI-first, Walks It Back Two Weeks Later

“To teach well, we need a massive amount of content,” Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn boldly claimed early last month in a memo to his employees. “And doing that manually doesn’t scale… Without AI, it would take us decades to scale our content to more learners. We owe it to our learners to get them this content ASAP.” He then goes on to announce that the company will be replacing contractors with AI and evaluating employee performance based on their AI usage.

This memo was then shared on the company’s social accounts, triggering a firestorm of overwhelmingly negative reactions. The company’s social media accounts were swarmed with frustrated users airing their grievances in the comments section. They argued that Duolingo has already been using AI for its content, and that the new AI-generated content is demonstrably bad. A prominent YouTuber who is also a longtime Duolingo user posted a video decrying the deteriorating quality of lessons on the app, racking up over 500k views. Duolingo’s social channels then went silent for a time, and when they finally started posting again, it didn’t land well (great analysis of this over at Inc.). Prominent business news outlets have since picked up the story, including Fast Company and Financial Times (paywalled).

About two weeks later, von Ahn walked it back. “To be clear: I do not see AI as replacing what our employees do (we are in fact continuing to hire at the same speed as before). I see it as a tool to accelerate what we do, at the same or better level of quality.” It will take some time for the company to recover, though, with its stock down 2% in the past month and their user base still disenchanted.

Note: I reached out to a few folks at Duolingo to ask for their perspective, but none replied as of the writing of this article. A friend told me they have signed an NDA that expressly forbids them from speaking about matters like this.

The Headlines

• Other Pittsburgh locals are having much more fun with AI! Researchers at CMU developed BrickGPT (formerly LegoGPT until they had to legally change the name), an AI model that generates “Physically Stable and Buildable LEGO® Designs from Text.” My favorite is the couch pictured at the top of this post because it’s just hella weird, but you can check out GIFs of the other designs at the link. Local AI builder Rex Harris also launched LipFlix, an AI tool that allows you to make videos of yourself lip-syncing to a song in various visual styles.

• Meanwhile, the Commonwealth has also been throwing its weight behind AI. These efforts include arguing for states’ rights to pass AI legislation (since the budget bill at the federal level currently includes a 10-year moratorium on state-level legislation). They also want to establish a “Commonwealth Opportunity Zone”, which would create a “regulatory sandbox” in which AI companies can start up.

• European company Ardent opened a new data center in Robinson. I’m pretty sure they’re just branding it as an “AI Data Center” because, well, that’s what’s hot right now. But they also say it’s going to have a lot more power and cooling than most data centers because of its AI focus.

• That’s enough about AI—let’s talk food tech. A new local startup Clean Plate Innovations is developing a system using machine learning and computer vision (which… is still AI, but whatever) to generate “real-time analytics on food waste, helping institutions reduce costs, improve sustainability, and make data-driven decisions about menu planning and operations.”

• Heinz launched its Heinz Verified webpage, which maps restaurants that have been verified to serve Heinz ketchup. Users can nominate their favorite restaurant to become verified, and if verified the restaurant will receive “access to insights and consumer trends, free product samples, promotions, branded merchandise, digital resources and complimentary marketing support designed to drive customer traffic.”

• Altoona-based but locally popular gas station/convenience store chain Sheetz was named in the top 300 most innovative companies by Fortune. Between their app and all their self-service kiosk action, I would honestly argue Sheetz is at least 50% tech company, which is why I’m talking about it here. I was recently in a Sheetz, and the auto-grinding single-serve coffee brewers now allow you to make iced coffee as well as regular, which is kinda nuts.

• The local tech job market continues to shrink, a reflection of national trends in the tech sector. The mayoral candidates weighed in on this issue in an interview, with Pittsburgh’s almost certain future mayor Corey O’Connor saying, “To expand equitable access to high-paying tech jobs, the city must build a real partnership with Pittsburgh Public Schools.”

• Remember how the co-founder of Aurora stepped down after their launch for a new role at “an iconic global company?” Well, we now know where he went: General Motors. Is General Motors actually iconic? I’m not sure. Post your take in the comments. Also, since he left, one of Aurora’s partners made them put drivers back in their trucks. That has to feel bad.

• For all the train guys out there, Wabtec showed off some more cool new train tech recently. A robotic, autonomous sled that can slip around rail yards and collect data on train cars called RailGhost and a train remote control system called Pathfinder were two new products that stuck out.

• Looking to take some summer courses? CCAC just launched their new mechatronics lab. What is mechatronics, you ask? Well, it’s “the study of mechanical, electrical and computer systems used to operate and automate modern manufacturing machines.” The program is low-cost and has a graduation and job placement rate of over 90% according to Starr.

• In space news, while Astrobotic broke another rocket, more local funding for space-related initiatives is on the way from a new coalition of local leaders. No one was hurt by the falling rocket, thankfully.

• Finally, for a good evening read, Technical.ly published a great piece highlighting the stories of local Ukrainian tech workers.

For the Days Ahead

• PSN put together an updated list of Pittsburgh’s top coworking spaces. Give one a try! I was recently at CoHatch in Shadyside and it was super chill.

• AI@Work continues to be my absolute favorite local recurring tech event, and we got another one coming up tomorrow, June 12th. If you’re an AI builder and interested in joining, sign up here.

• Looking for a weekly hangout with other folks who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Technically Coffee is a great one, 8am every Friday at Bakery Square. Sign up here.

• PyData Pittsburgh’s next talk is on Thursday, June 19th. Jay Palat, from mpathic, will be talking about how machine learning is used to process conversational data. Sign up here.

• Code & Supply is hosting another Build Night on June 30th. Build Night is an impromptu co-working space where you can work on a project, pair, learn, and mingle. Sign up here.

• JuliaCon, the Julia programming language conference, will be in Pittsburgh July 21–26th. Tickets are on sale here.

• Are you having trouble making time to get sunshine this summer or attend any of these sweet events? Check out Confirmed, a locally owned and developed time manager/scheduler app. Plans start at $5/month for a single user, and you can get your first month free with offer code techbeat!

That’s all for now. See you next time!

—Austin