if the labor cost goes down, the service should become cheaper.
if it worked like that, i'd love to have AI replace humans.
AI isn't the problem. capitalism is.
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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The AI slop is why I quit Duolingo after my 1500+ day streak.
Is there an alternative? I just started using it but the experience is incredibly grating, especially the way they gate your progress behind "lives" that stop you learning unless you can pay.
Yarr, thar be an alternative. Though some might'n be thinking acquiring such booty be illegal.
Maybe time to boycott the service (which anyway was not that spectacular)
Let's also replace the customers by AI, that way the whole system will really be "AI first" and self-sufficient.
Afraid to find out what an AI Karen would be like.
it's a matter of time (or more likely has already happen) where an AI company ends up having only AI users, it makes money be selling adds to show to the users, which are all AI bots, and then selling those bots as user data.
then said company celebrates that it has no humans involved making a shit ton of profit.
So Twitter?
If you looking to replace dualingo, check with your local library, they may offer free access to different language learning apps. I was able to get Rosetta Stone for free using my library. And they also have access to Muzzy and Transparent language.
So if they're using a ChatGPT wrapper to teach me languages, why do I need Duolingo? Copilot is free.
This kind of thing is what confuses me as a business model. Take audio books for example, Audible is pivoting to ai voices. Why would people spend $20 on an audio book with an ai voice when they can just spend $1.99 on the eBook and run it through an ai voice program themselves?
most people have absolutely no idea how to 'run it through an ai voice program' ..... yet
True enough. I suspect that "yet" will come pretty soon though. I'm hoping all of these 'early AI adopter' companies fuck themselves out of business. With the tech as it is, most companies pivoting their products to AI on the user-end are just introducing a middle man. Once people catch on to it and realize they can just cut out the middle man, they hopefully won't last long.
Copilot is free.
Free.
Free with ads.
Freemium with ads.
Free trial with tiered subscription service.
New subscription tiers with reduced ads. Premium package for boosts to service.
Please enter your credit card number and watch the ad to unlock device.
Please drink verification can to continue..
If it's free you are the product.
This is a fun quote to bandy around but I'd argue when it comes to AI it's more that we're in the honeymoon phase. The platforms are building the user bases. Not to say aggressive monetization isn't just over the horizon.
My son is going to be sad that we don't use duo anymore
your local public library (if in US) should offer free language courses online - all you need is a library card
i cancelled my subscription and told them why
Duolingo has enshittified so much over the last few years.
Even if I had the ability to become a millionaire tech founder, I don't think I'd want to because every "I want to make learning new languages free and easy for everyone" becomes a "I have to drive 3% more ad revenue this quarter by charting my users' every bowel movement".
I suspect the reality of being a rich tech bro is watching your adult self slowly consume your own childhood dreams, aspirations, and soul.
Enshittification is not driven by the founders (mostly, fuck Zuckerberg). It's driven by greedy investors who want their billion dollar unicorn payout and who who will risk a hundred company failures to get it.
A lot of tech companies that manage to resist outside investors are doing just fine.
I mean, true, but maybe the founders shouldn't take investment in the first place?
It's ultimately driven by the lack of constraints in their market segment. Tech companies will screw over investors as well if they can get away with it.
But I was more talking about how the founder of Duolingo professed specific, world-bettering goals when he started the company that -- if held sincerely -- would make him ashamed of himself because most of what the company does isn't in the service of them.
The tech world is rife with founders that ultimately met that exact same fate.
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I canceled Super and uninstalled when they started telling me to get Max. My friends canceled and uninstalled today because of this news.
We might be a small minority but I do giggle at the thought that Duolingo is gonna have to build AI customers soon because nobody will want to use it.
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Apparently they've already been incorporating it and it's very inaccurate. I've decided to stop using them and have switched to LingoDeer and MemRise. Really pleased with how much better they are.
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Duolingo is a tragedy. They really quickly realized that you don’t make money teaching things - you make it on retention and gamification.
Mango languages is great if your library has a subscription. I believe the US’s foreign service materials are also really good, if you want effective but boring.
I was so upset last year when they got rid of the comment section. There were often helpful explanations for WHY you conjugate the word that way, or how native speakers might use a different word.
Yeah, the comment section was amazing...and then they came out with "max", where you get "explain my answer" for a premium, powered by a [notoriously fallible] LLM. This is the definition of enshitification.
One of the languages I am learning is an endangered native language, and it was super helpful to see knowledgeable people in the comments.
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It's not gamification that's the issue. That aspect really held my attention and gave me consistency.
It's the push to a pay-to-win model that made me quit. They made the challenges harder and harder to complete without using boosts, and to use the boosts you had to use gems. And gems were really hard to get unless you bought them with real money. It doesn't matter if you have a super subscription (or whatever it's called), you still had to pay to get the gems.
And the prices for the gems were just as predatory and the disgusting mobile gaming industry. Never should there be an option to spend over $20 for in-game consumables, nevermind over $100. It's sick.
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I have found Duolingo much, much less useful for language learning than Language Transfer. The latter actually helps you learn to think in another language rather than memorize things (which is still useful, but not nearly as much).
Short if total immersion, I have found nothing better than LT.
The problem I have with finding an alternative is that most just offer some five to ten largest languages. Want to learn Spanish, French, Russian, or Chinese? There are hundreds of both free and paid services available. Want to learn Hungarian, Irish, or Finnish? It’s Duolingo and a scant handful of sites specific to that language.
Well at least now you know you can skip the middleman and ask some ai to help you practice.
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If you decide to cancel your subscription and delete your account, they give a warning when deleting that says you need to cancel your subscription SEPARATELY. Just a heads up for anyone thinking of leaving like I did.
“Duolingo will remain a company that cares deeply about its employees”
Except for the contract employees. Fuck those people.
In 2012, we bet on mobile. [...] That decision helped us win the 2013 iPhone App of the Year and unlocked the organic word-of-mouth growth that followed. Betting on mobile made all the difference. We’re making a similar call now, and this time the platform shift is AI.
I think this is some sort of fallacy, not sure which tho. Maybe a hasty generalization? "We bet on mobile twelve years ago and won, so if we bet on AI now we'll also win."
*It also seems they're using AI to code... those poor programmers will have to double check every single line it shits out because you know, it's a fucking AI. Yet another company succumbs to a CEOs emotional FOMO.
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Oh no! How will I pretend to learn a language now? Woe is me.
I get the hate for Duolingo, but you can actually learn with it
Duolingo got me enough vocabulary in Spanish to put the simplest sentences together, and then follow more robust lessons. I still think it was a good starting point, but I won't use it anymore on principle.
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It's okay. We can all play that game. I've replaced my use of Duolingo with AI.
Pro tip: have as your "system prompt" in your LLM of choice "at the end of every query, include me a short Swedish relates to my prompt". No need for Duolingo.
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Duolingo uninstalled
uninstalls Duolingo
leaves 1-star app review
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