this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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  • 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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[–] LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world 36 points 6 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Pro@programming.dev 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

crazy how fast they ruined the reputation of this company.

they lost all the good will in like a month.

Twitter enter the chat

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago

Twitter was going downhill hard already when Musk bought the place

[–] possumparty@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago

I uninstalled yesterday, good riddance Duo.

[–] underline960@sh.itjust.works 28 points 6 days ago (2 children)

FTFY: Pretends to walk back his statements. Fools no one.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

So...tries and fails? 😛

[–] Seefoo@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

except his AI.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

People are unfair with this "CEO". Its statement helped me move on from duolingo, which has seen significant decline in quality while never going beyond "a moderately bad way to start learning", toward better, more developed, more cared for, cheaper, solutions.

So, thanks for that.

[–] tehitype@programming.dev 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm mainly interested in Japanese, so I'm currently looking at https://www.renshuu.org/ . In addition to just throwing random stuff at you, it gots some more in-depth training, explanations of stuff (something that never happened in duolingo), additional hints for alphabets including some mnemonics, and years of dedicated experience in the language. I can't tell how it would feel long term, but so far even having some basic explanations is a great improvement.

[–] Dreaming_Novaling@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago

I'm not gonna lie, I stopped using Renshuu due to having other resources at hand and because it just looks so rough, but I think it's great for a free resource. The fact that they offer a shit ton of vocab/grammar/kanji study sets for free and community built ones is reminiscent of Anki, and Renshuu also uses a SRS. Lots of customization for reviews and answer options.

It's certainly nowhere as eye-catching and addictive as Duolingo is, so beginners are probably more likely to give up than if they used Duolingo. But honestly, that site lost the point of what learning a language was supposed to be about anyway.

Sometimes I feel I should pick it back up, but at this point I want to focus more on reading/watching content for practice/learning.

Duolingo is one of those fad apps that are overrated but are exquisitely trash once you force yourself to use them just to say "Hey, I have learned a language!". Honestly, it was pretty funny seeing Duolingo comment on videos on all that despite it feeling forced, replacing it with AI just signifies Duolingo's slow and painful demise

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 174 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I mean, it is too late. Canceled my sub, won't be coming back.

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 105 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Phen@lemmy.eco.br 38 points 1 week ago (10 children)

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.

[–] gramie@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] EndOfLine@lemmy.world 121 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 65 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Well, the crux of the problem is that AI is trying to approximate intelligence. That's not useful for a CEO.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 87 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

“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.

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[–] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 57 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 33 points 1 week ago (21 children)

I'm a long time user of Duolingo and you earn plenty to give yourself the occasional streak freeze if you can't go two days without doing a lesson. It's not really as predatory as it sounds. It's nothing like pay to win type games.

Fuck Duolingo for the AI shit though, don't mistake me for a Duolingo simp thinking their blameless. It's just that the monetization is not as predatory as it sounds.

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[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 25 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Theres also basically zero server side-checking on anything. Hacked APKs let you get premium features for free :3

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[–] dustyData@lemmy.world 56 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Tl;Dr: skip the apps unless they're part of a bigger in-person course. Prefer reputable sources like pimsleur and mango languages. If you have no rush, get graded readers and watch a lot of YouTube, podcasts, etc.

Ok, so here are my two cents on learning languages and the whole category of learning apps. They are all flawed on some major way or another. But mostly it is about pacing learning progress.

Teaching absolute beginners is easy. They know nothing, thus anything you show them will be progress. The actual difficulty when learning a language is finding appropriate material for your level of understanding, such that you understand most of it, but still find new things to learn. This is known as comprehensible input. The difficulty of most apps is that they are not capable of detecting then adapting study content accordingly to the student's progress. So they typically go way too slow, or sometimes too fast. Leaving the student frustrated and halting learning.

Jumping with some nonzero knowledge into any app is also torture. It's known as the valley of despair. The beginner content is too boring and dull, now that you know a bit, but the intermediate level is way too much of a gap for you yet.

My advice is to skip language learning apps. The "motivation via gamification hypothesis" is flawed and lacks nuance and understanding of behavioral science. People don't stop studying out of a lack of tokens, gems, streaks or achievement badges. It's because the content itself is uninteresting and bores them. Sure, the celebration and streaks work at first, but they usually lose effect by something known as reinforcement depreciation. The same stimulus shown too much or too frequently stops being gratifying. The biggest reward for learning a language is actually using it.

A method that is known to work is to find graded readers. Watch a lot of YouTube, podcasts, social media, in the target language (avoid the language learning influencers) listen to native influencers speaking about topics you care about. Books work, in-person courses work, learning apps are good to start you up form absolute zero. But most learning happens on what you do in your everyday life. Using the language is the most effective way of becoming good at the language. Everything else is just excuses for using it.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

...or join a reputable language learning academy and go to class in person.

Though I know this is not for everyone. But neither is self-learning online.

[–] Kuma@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

You put into words exactly how I’ve felt about language learning apps. Every time I try a game or app that's supposed to teach you, it feels like I’m starting over, and it never actually becomes fun. I tried Duolingo, but after a while, I found myself just doing super easy lessons to keep my streak going so I wouldn’t have to sit through the boring ones. It felt pretty bad, so I stopped using it when I hit 800 days.

My friend didn't use any apps and instead started by texting and talking with people and managed to learn Korean in just a year, well enough for casual, everyday conversations or hobby-related stuff. Meanwhile, I’ve been using apps and still can’t hold a conversation with anyone…

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[–] Kalysta@lemm.ee 51 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I deleted the app the second he said this. Get fucked, AI.

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 41 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

How do these people become CEOs they're as thick as several short planks nailed together.

Firstly every single company that has tried to replace its employees with AI has always ended up having issues. Secondly even if that wasn't the case, people are not going to be happy about it so it's not something you should brag publicly about.

If you're going to replace all of your employees with AI just do it quietly, that way if it fails it's not a public failure, and if it succeeds (it won't) then you talk about it.

[–] sturger@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

People keep forgetting that these companies’ product is stock price, not whatever they’re advertising at any given moment.
Their “CEOs” have gotten sloppy because the grift has gotten so easy they naturally assume everyone is in on it. If everyone is in on the grift, there’s no need to lie about it.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 week ago

How do these people become CEOs they’re as thick as several short planks nailed together.

Being a CEO has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence, I guarantee you that Duolingo has employees who are far more intelligent than the CEO.

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[–] Brewchin@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Classic "I've made a HUGE mistake" moment from yet another "thought leader" suffering from AI/layoff FOMO. 🙄

[–] kubica@fedia.io 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What is the point of this news that talk about a walk back that is doing nothing to walk back?

[–] ogmios@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In 2025 everything is just a messaging problem to these goons.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago

Bragging about replacing your employees publicly over and over before actually being able to do so might cause an employee crisis

[–] Daedskin@lemm.ee 33 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 31 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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.)

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

wait what... they made the official icon look miserable and added snot? wtf?

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

I think on iOS they added a thing where it would change based on the days you didn't use Duolingo. Honestly at this point I think it speaks more about the sorry state of their company more than anything.

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Yup! Google "Duolingo snot icon" and it will be the first image result.

Or you could visit the orange site and check it out there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/comments/1f2deam/im_sick_right_now_and_this_is_the_app_icon/

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago
[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

AI is social lung cancer. Behind social media, which is social bone cancer metastasized.

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[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If anyone wants to practice their Japanese or have questions, they can message me.

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