Luis Von Ahn

So I'm from Guatemala.

So Guatemala is right below Mexico.

And for the Americans in the audience, and let this sink in, because it really applies in most ways, for the Americans in the audience, you can think of it as Mexico's Mexico.

Just like the US doesn't want illegal immigration from Mexico, Mexico doesn't want illegal immigration from Guatemala.

It's a smaller country.

It's a poorer country.

And, well, what can I tell you?

it has much better Mexican food.

Guatemala is a very poor country.

And a lot of people talk about education as something that brings equality to different social classes.

But I always saw it as the opposite, as something that brings inequality.

Because what happens in practice is that people who have a lot of money can buy themselves a really good education and therefore continue having a lot of money, whereas people who don't have very much money barely learn how to read and write and therefore never make a lot of money.

And this is especially true in poor countries.

Now, I was fortunate that I received a rich person's education, even though I didn't grow up rich.

And it's because I'm an only child, and my mother, who was a single mother, spent all of her resources on my education.

And this allowed me to come to college to the US and eventually get a PhD in computer science.

Now, because of all of this,

About 10 years ago, I decided I wanted to do something that would give equal access to education to everyone.

Oh, by the way, this is what I want to talk to you about today, giving equal access to education to everyone.

At the time, I was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, and I decided to work on this with my PhD student, Severin.