- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
- Following backlash to statements that Duolingo will be AI-first, threatening jobs in the process, CEO Luis von Ahn has tried to walk back his statement.
- Unfortunately, the CEO doesn’t walk back any of the key points he originally outlined, choosing instead to try, and fail to placate the maddening crowd.
- Unfortunately the PR team may soon be replaced by AI as this latest statement has done anything but instil confidence in the firm’s users.
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I mean, it is too late. Canceled my sub, won’t be coming back.
Same. Deleted the app this weekend and let my 918 day streak evaporate.
I’m actually kind of surprised at how little it affected me, to be honest. I had a little bit pre-regret about losing the streak before deleting the app, but now a couple days later that feeling certainly doesn’t exist. AND there’s that benefit of no stupid owl guilt tripping you every day.
Check out “Language Drops” and “Rosetta Stone” if you’re looking for replacements. They both have very different approaches to language learning (both from each other and from Duolingo), but their content is at the very least much better curated than Duolingo’s.
I haven’t gone out of my way to check but AFAIK neither of them is jumping on the AI-before-anything-else train.
My recommendation is Language Transfer, a freely-available system for multiple languages that, in my opinion, helps you to think in another language better than any other system I have tried.
Many libraries also give out subscriptions.to Mango. That is usually a paid app and much better than doulingo
Thanks for the recommendations!
I have actually switched over to Mango Languages because my library gives free access to it.
But if I don’t end up liking that I’ll give these a shot.
Would you recommend one over the other and if so why?
As a complete beginner, Drops is pretty good for learning random words and increasing vocabulary. As you advance through it you start seeing sentences too, but it doesn’t teach you how to make your own sentences, only to memorize the ones they pre-created.
Rosetta Stone doesn’t translate anything. All of the content is in the language you want to learn and it tries to introduce you to things in a natural way. For example it shows a picture of someone biting an apple and says “the man eats an apple”, then later shows other pictures related to one or multiple men, fruits and verbs, so you can get used to the differences between things just by observing those.
I just tried “Language Drops” and it was… interesting. It didn’t place me at the right level, so I got a very beginner lesson when I’m closer to intermediate (but definitely not fluent). I’m not sure I liked matching the pictures- the picture for “thank you” could mean different things depending on how you interpret the person’s face and body language- and then I hit the end of the free content for the day. It didn’t get to different tenses or even whole sentences- just basic vocabulary and no verbs. Maybe it ramps up quickly?
Sometimes the icons annoy me too and I wish the app had an option to always show the icon’s label, but at least you can tap on the icon to see the label.
Drops had an ai feature where it would show you a “fact” at the end of each session, which was often completely wrong etymology.
I canceled my sub, but sadly not out of principle on the AI thing. I just accidentally hit the button that accepts an upgrade to the family plan and it didn’t look like there was an easy way to undo it so I just killed the whole subscription.
Where is the discussion for replacing CEOs with AI? Seems like predicting market trends based off of historical data and managing corporate resources would be just the sort of thing that AI would be good at. Plus it would cost way less and not require massive bonuses nor ownership of the company.
Well, the crux of the problem is that AI is trying to approximate intelligence. That’s not useful for a CEO.
Respec the AI with lots of points into Charisma and Legal Dexterity. It also needs a large amount of Gold to get started.
“AI is creating uncertainty for all of us, and we can respond to this with fear or curiosity. I’ve always encouraged our team to embrace new technology (that’s why we originally built for mobile instead of desktop), and we are taking that same approach with AI. By understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI now, we can stay ahead of it and remain in control of our own product and our mission,” writes von Ahn.
Now please explain in more detail how this advice should be followed, practically, by someone you just fired because AI was cheaper. Give examples of how they can “stay ahead of it” so as to “remain in control of the product and mission” they are no longer employed to work on. How should they “embrace” this transition and “respond with curiosity” to no being newly unable to afford food or rent? “Uncertainty for all of us” my ass.
The former employees are now curious about how they will pay rent and eat, so there’s that.
In another thread someone told me you can buy gems or something to keep your streak going.
That would’ve made me uninstall long before his comments.
Theres also basically zero server side-checking on anything. Hacked APKs let you get premium features for free :3
That’s awful! Could you please let me know where these APKs are hosted so that I may avoid them?
Mobilism.
Got any recommendations for where to find said APKs?
Mobilism.
Just a guess , but maybe the extra net by the bay of torrent.
I remember easily getting gems for free. Also the streak basically doesn’t matter at all. What made me uninstall is the slow pace. It felt like I was stuck on the same words and topics forever. It felt like I was not actually learning anything, which if you’ve ever started learning a language if a formal setting, is very apparent.
I’ve found it’s best for drilling and not for learning. You’ll probably learn faster by reading a textbook or listening to something like the Michel Thomas method that gets you speaking super fast. Then you can hop on Duolingo and make it stick. The secret is knowing the vocabulary beforehand to finish the lessons faster by focusing on your accuracy instead. It’s still a lot of grinding, though. 😅
The old tree system was much better, it allowed you to mix exercises from different topics. The new path system locks you into one topic until you know all the sentences by rote.
They changed that a couple years ago, right? I think that was when I quit.
It’s worse than that.
Yes, you can pay for a streak freeze. If you don’t, you’ll probably find that you were given one for free anyhow. You’d have wasted your gems.
Yes, you can pay to undo a streak loss. It’s more than paying for a freeze.
It’ll give you multiple chances to pay for all that, too. If you’re out for days and then come back, you can pay to fix your streak.
What is the point of a streak if you can just buy your way back to it?
Also, I had paid for the last couple years, which (IIRC) includes free streak freezes. It still asked if I want to pay for them. I’d say no, and find I had one anyhow, or a friend had miraculously given me one.
But during the last year (365 days) my streak was actually only at 190 or so because I’d used so many streak freezes that I got for free. I wasn’t even trying to keep my streak.
When I finally let my streak die, the icon started trying to guilt trip me into coming back with horrible icons of Duo being sad, heartbroken, or even dead.
The constant mental manipulation that was well beyond what gamification should ever be was what finally drove me to just quit playing altogether. I had already canceled my sub long ago, but I’m not even going to use the remainder of this year I’ve already paid for.
I deleted the app the second he said this. Get fucked, AI.
Make sure you also start the account deletion process.
Classic “I’ve made a HUGE mistake” moment from yet another “thought leader” suffering from AI/layoff FOMO. 🙄
crazy how fast they ruined the reputation of this company. just a couple months ago, duo mascot and Duolingo streaks were cool and fun. they had a good thing going. but now it’s just another shit tech company again. they lost all the good will in like a month.
crazy how fast they ruined the reputation of this company.
they lost all the good will in like a month.
Twitter enter the chat
Twitter was going downhill hard already when Musk bought the place
I uninstalled yesterday, good riddance Duo.
What is the point of this news that talk about a walk back that is doing nothing to walk back?
In 2025 everything is just a messaging problem to these goons.
Bragging about replacing your employees publicly over and over before actually being able to do so might cause an employee crisis
Last year in February I uninstalled the app on a perfect, 2000-day streak when I got the first whiff of AI; I’m probably never going back
Now say it in Spanish.
Reminds of Proto CEOs faux pas
Good to see the normie finally turning on these cult of personality clowns imitating Steve apple…
I can’t be believe we had to suffer 15 years of it.
These parasites been getting high on their own farts for too long while normie LARPed everything they said.
faux pas
Not much of a “faux” pas. Not only did he double down on it, but the board supported him.
The plural of faux pas is also faux pas, because you know, French. But this is less one false step in the dance, than doing entirely the wrong dance altogether.
Oh thanks for re-teaching me that one! It’s been far too long since I last used French reallistically.
Even tho it’s better that I took that than German, otherwise I’d understand the ich_iel memes which would make them lose half their charm.
AI is social cancer
It’s a lie told by marketing companies that have gaslit artists into automating their creativity and gaslit governments into automating fascism
AI is social lung cancer. Behind social media, which is social bone cancer metastasized.
FTFY: Pretends to walk back his statements. Fools no one.
So…tries and fails? 😛
except his AI.
I gotta say, the icon of Duo looking like this, plus a snot coming out of one of its nostrils is what did it for me. No way to turn off this “feature” either. I’m not easily grossed out, so seeing it once or twice would have given me a chuckle. Seeing it every time I opened my phone? Nope.
I knew I wouldn’t be renewing my subscription right there and then (there were other reasons, but that one moved the decision faster.)
I hear good things about Pimsleur as an alternative.
Interesting.
I have switched to Mango Languages because my library gives free access to it. So I’ve been trying to share that information with people. Or, at least, check your local library to see if they offer something.
That’s great advice. At least for as long as libraries still exist. 😫
Pimsleur has been making “real” language courses for 20+ years, you could get CD’s with languages back then, there should be plenty to choose from.
It can go either way, some people like the method, others hâte it because it’s not gamified. Pro tip, get pimsleur courses from your library if you want to try them for a real trial rather than what they give you
I used Pimsleur to get started on my L2 way back when. I am now pretty much fluent, after living immersively for a long time. The immersion, and dedication, and tutors, and language school did the heavy lifting. But Pimsleur gets big credit for helping me get started and get confidence.
