I was gonna say language learning is actually one of the few AI might be useful for, but they’re not talking about making their users learn with a little AI translator having a random conversation with them; they’re replacing their workforce with AI.
Fuck. I was considering using Duo once I finish school to give myself some more options to flee the US as we dive deeper into nazism. Any good alternatives?
They already have AI driven conversations if you pay.
Which is about the extent AI could benefit a service like Duolingo. Gutting their workforce isn’t going to make it any better.
i mean the way humans are made to learn languages is just simple immersion, consume media in the target language and your brain will figure it out.
the one thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want subtitles, because then you won’t actually be paying attention to the target language. If you can stomach it then children’s media is great because it’s specifically made to be simple and teach children the language.
Any good alternatives?
Join a class. These apps are a waste of time.
Language Transfer, lingodeer
Language Transfer on SoundCloud or Busuu if you want more of an app / exercises experience.
As someone learning Japanese
There’s no fucking way AI would be able to assist in learning a second language
What language are you trying to learn?
Anki is great for flashcards with lots of community generated decks for free download:
Find a personal tutor social media. Pay them money. It’s easier than it ever has been
The problem with current AI text generation is that it can be wrong, which is bad if you are trusting it with giving correct information to learn
Deepl, even though its made for translating, it is often wrong
I know I’m going to sound like a stock Marxist from the 1930s, but: AI is a means of production and therefore should be collectivized.
the devs appropriated the models from the masses.
Can’t be good for the quality. I already get a lot of errors in my native language: the correct translation to my native language is not accepted and the “correct translation according to Duolingo” is grammatically wrong. So I keep getting errors for not using wrong grammar in my own mother language. This is going to keep getting so much worse and I have to wonder, if I’m even learning the correct grammar in the foreign language.
yeah, it’s pretty common for AI answers to feel very accurate and useful on topics the user doesn’t know much about, but highly error-prone and unreliable on topics the user is an expert in. … … …
Sure it’s wrong about my area of expertise, but I’m sure it’s right about everyone else’s!
And they say AI isnt like human intelligence.
Anyon have luck getting a refund for a year subscription?
This email makes no sense.
Let me paraphrase them:
We bet on mobile and won big. AI is great. AI tutors are a thing.
Therefore we’ll get AI to understand our codebase and get it to fo stuff people did before
This isn’t “betting on” AI. This is outsourcing to AI.
You can be an AI company (theoretically) - have people make AI models that are then deployed. Note the lack of recursively, made-by-AI-for-AI products and services.
Tbh, Duolingo was always a gimmick. It doesn’t teach you a language. It teaches you small snippets of 5-10 words each with little to no grammar. It’s repetitive and boring. It was that way before the lives they said they’d never add.
They lost me as a user when they rolled out lives.
Now, I hope they lose someone else.
Duolingo has potential. But learning a language always required a large time investmant, and it always will.
I assume its lessons will only get worse than they already are.
I’m wondering which of these 2 options is true for the chief techbro who came up with this:
- They are genuinely clueless, and have never used ChatGPT for more than 5 minutes
- They know the limitations of LLMs well, but they want to ride the AI hype to inflate their company value (and maybe cut some costs by downsizing)
They believe in infinite growth. They think LLMs are going to get reliable fast. LLMs have probably played a direct role in convincing them of that
Yep they’re paying lip service to the employees but this message is 100% to potential investors looking to bet on the AI wave.
it being an email from their CEO is basically all the evidence needed, CEOs don’t say anything that isn’t somehow meant to increase profits.
Neat. Here’s how you can delete your account: https://www.duolingo.com/help/delete-my-account-and-data
Can I delete my account if I never made an account in the first pace?
Yay thanks
Just in time for spring cleaning. Thanks.
Perfect. Thank you.
For the first time ever, teaching as well as the best human tutors is within our reach.
No it fucking isn’t. The video calls are awful and don’t do anything to help you learn why what you said is wrong. Lilly just acts confused and ignores what you said. And in their normal explanations it just assumes why you didn’t know something, gives an answer for what it guessed, and doesn’t do anything else. The old explanations were much better than the new garbage they offer.
That’s pretty on point for the kind of stereotypical girl lily is supposed to be.
Opened the comments because I got stuck at this line for a bit. When I got to this part my brain added in commas and it took me a little because even though “teaching, as well as the best human tutors, is within our reach” doesn’t really make sense, it still seems less nonsensical than without the commas.
Are there any viable non-AI alternatives to Duolingo?
Probably not. Translation and language is perfect for AI to work on. People here may hate it, but no business in that market can afford hundreds of employees when the competition uses AI.
Them: this is not about replacing employees with AI
they then proceed to explain how they will give new work to AI first instead of hiring people
Thankfully this shit service has never seen a cent from me (and I know 2 languages), and I’ll definitely keep it this way…
It was a good app ten years ago when you could use it as much as you wanted for a few short ads. Now its an ad-ridden mtxfest.
that’s the really depressing part, they took something that could have kind of revolutionized the world (imagine everyone having easy access to learning the major languages), and just snapped its neck like a defenseless kitten
Anyone had any luck getting refunded?
Yai so on top of being an expert in telling all the animal names in a foreign language but not one consecutive sentence - what will come next ? More sample sentences like „the mouse eats the elephant“? (No joke had that one)
I came across “The bear is wearing its dresses”
I haven’t used the app for a while, but I still have it installed. The delete account button doesn’t work, and neither does the feedback button. Cool.
Try a VPN to any EU country. I find that platforms can get really cooperative really fast when you wanna delete your account and they think GDPR applies
Unless you’re already in the EU in which case you could try “Mine” (saymine.com) although it’s been a minute and the AI stuff on their site does by fill me.with confidence
Good luck with that, I’ll watch the outcome with great interest.
I would rather talk with read dude to learn English than AI
the last sentence is crazy foreshadowing
