Duolingo is run by fucking idiots.
Duolingo CEO says AI is a better teacher than humans—but schools will exist ‘because you still need childcare’
Submitted 3 weeks ago by als@lemmy.blahaj.zone to technology@lemmy.world
https://fortune.com/2025/05/20/duolingo-ai-teacher-schools-childcare/
Comments
apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
scarabic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I hate this app so much now. It has become the poster child of enshittification by gamification.
Almacca@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
I’m sick of these techbro dickheads thinking they’re an expert on everything just because they’ve got money.
LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Plus they basically have advanced degrees in enshittification
Aux@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Well, the poor tend to be less educated and only care about immediate needs. So yeah, if you have money, you’re probably more of an expert than a person without money.
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
lick them boots.
Almacca@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
Ah yes. “The poor”. Know all about them do you?
Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
the poor tend to be less educated
Education being free or not depends on the specific government and its policies of a sovereign country. Education may not be free in your country, in which case yes poor people have less access if they have less money to afford it.
You generalizing your experience in your country to the entire world, though, speaks to your bias and lack of education, which is quite ironic. It also speaks to your willingness to accept the status quo rather than try to undermine it and fight for something better for everyone.
If you’re on Lemmy, you’re likely not rich, and so you’re acting against your own interest. We as a proletariat could achieve so much if we were willing to put aside our differences, aim towards the removal of rich twats from power, and install systems and policies that benefit us, not them.
Instead, you’re propagating a lie with undertones that only rich people have the curiosity to learn about the world around them, all while failing to recognize that immediate needs have to be met first before people think about pursuing higher goals.
Have a down vote.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yes cause a spoiled brat that constantly relied on their parents’ money growing up is sure to be shrewd and technical.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m poor as shit and I think I’m pretty damn smart.
My ex was a trust fund baby and dumb as rocks. I did his college capstone for him.
MrShankles@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
That’s a rather large leap in logic. And “the poor” wasn’t even mentioned, so your opinion just comes off as inflammatory
But I guess opinions are like kittens, people just give 'em away
hansolo@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Amazing how this guy has no idea that schools are just as much about socializing and learning to deal with other people and situations you’ll be in for the rest of your life. That’s not “child care,” it’s a structured environment where the main goal is learning and the real benefits are everything else on the fringes.
thatonecoder@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I partially agree, but that argument about socializing might be flawed. At least in my experience, such socializing did not happen in schools, but instead in coffee shops (again, my experience may be different from everyone else’s), where I had meaningful debates with adults. Instead, I actively avoided conversations with my peers, particularly because I had nothing in common with them.
hansolo@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Yeah, it’s different for everyone.
My “counterfactual” is knowing a lot of kids that were home schooled. They were just young weird adults that didn’t thrive in most circumstances. They’re a reason why even rural agrarian societies found value is putting kids together.
GamingChairModel@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Instead, I actively avoided conversations with my peers, particularly because I had nothing in common with them.
Looking at your own social interactions with others, do you now consider yourself to be socially well adjusted? Was the “debating child in a coffee shop” method actually useful at developing the social skills that are useful in adulthood?
I have some doubts.
rowdyrockets@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I ended my sub and deleted my account when they announced they’d be replacing their contact workers with AI.
Lingonaut looks promising. And I’ve been trying out Language Transfer for Spanish. I’ve learned more about how Spanish “works” in an hour of Language Transfer than I did with months of Duolingo. I’m smacking myself for wasting the time - though I do enjoy the gamification.
SippyCup@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
The gamification only works until you figure out the rules they used.
I have completed multiple lessons on Duolingo without ever reading the prompt. I even started a language I knew nothing about because I felt like I wasn’t actually absorbing anything in the language I’d spent more than a year on, and pretty much the same results. After a few lessons it became possible to complete lessons basically blind.
rowdyrockets@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I mean yeah none of that is wrong but all I said was I like gamification in learning, not that Duolingo was the best form of gamification ever presented.
JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
+1 for language transfer.
garretble@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If you have a library card, you might check with your library to see if they have free access to something like Mango Languages, as well.
Mine does, so I can use that app for free. I’m probably going to switch to it as my main app soon because this guy is an asshole.
gradual@lemmings.world 2 weeks ago
You shouldn’t have given them money in the first place.
Did you learn your lesson? I will assume not and you’re going to throw money at the next company.
rowdyrockets@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
What a sad little man you must be. Go virtue signal somewhere else.
shrodes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I quite like Busuu after switching from Duo. Still hanging out for a Japanese Language Transfer course
maarten.cappaert@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
"Try Super Duolingo now to avoid interruptions." Interruptions which are only there to promote Super Duolingo in the first place.
gradual@lemmings.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, the app is predatory as fuck.
I’m just glad I’m smart enough to realize when I’m seeing predatory design and not assume it’s “how things should be.”
raltoid@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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Company replaces humans with AI.
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Consumers notice the drop in quality and stop using the product
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CEO makes controversial public statements about AI and his product to get into the news.
Yeah, sure thing there buddy.
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AnotherPenguin@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
Can we replace this guy with AI?
untakenusername@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
ai CEOs would save so much money
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It would actually have to listen to legal and marketing, can you imagine? No other private school baby could ever compete with that.
LiamClicks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What a load of crap. Big tech is not the solution, it’s not even the question, it’s the problem.
WereCat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
AI is better at running companies than humans-but CEOs will still exist ‘because they want money’
Eczpurt@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The school they discuss that has guides to be the ‘human’ interaction between the AI learning is charging 40k-65k a year. That’s for 2 hours a day of learning.
If it was better than humans, it’d be making life better not more expensive.
floo@retrolemmy.com 3 weeks ago
It is better. Better for them.
WindyRebel@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As someone who has actually been in a classroom and dealt with 20 kids—fuck off CEO with no real experience dealing with people.
Personalities, learning types, inequity, and so much more contribute to how people learn. A computer program cannot account for this. Also, what are you going to do when a kid doesn’t want to learn from a computer? Strap them down, force their hands on a keyboard, and shock them if they move or visit a program/site that isn’t what you want in that moment of teaching?
Good. Fucking. Luck.
eleitl@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Duolingo has gotten worse since they fired their human staff and started embracing AI slop.
oplkill@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In near future all CEOs will be replaced by AI
KumaSudosa@feddit.dk 2 weeks ago
An AI would definitely do a better job than this twerp. He should live by what he preaches and step down
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
It would be very hard to be worse than them.
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
kreskin@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So many rich psychopaths in capitalist societies.
b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
The system is designed to make psychopaths successful and powerful.
desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
and as such the system is beneficial to minorities (specific ones, not all).
RangerJosey@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Dude just can’t help himself. Gotta open his mouth and dropkick his own throat.
All because he fucked up.
Coldcell@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I just don’t know why every one of these idiots looks so damn punchable.
masterofn001@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Because they are.
vane@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Puts his children in private school without computers.
db2@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I want to learn a couple languages soon. I won’t be using Duolingo to do so now.
These paint chip eating overgrown children are so detached from reality it’s not even funny.
KumaSudosa@feddit.dk 2 weeks ago
Oh don’t worry, using Duolingo would’ve never taught you a language anyway!
gradual@lemmings.world 2 weeks ago
These paint chip eating overgrown children are so detached from reality it’s not even funny.
Irony.
db2@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What?
Taleya@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
shut up dude your AI can’t even conjugate italian are verbs properly
essteeyou@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m sure this won’t be a popular comment, but I can see how having a motivated learner in a 1:1 lesson with an AI might be better for that person than sitting in a class with 35 other people, most of whom don’t want to be there, running through a syllabus that the teacher may not even like, at the pace of the slowest kid in class.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How fast a kid learns 5th grade syllabus is far less important than how well they learn to get along with other kids and form friendships and basically learn how to live in society. Cooperation, conflict resolution, public speaking, group bonding etc. You can’t learn any of these things from an AI
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Also learning from other humans is part of the human experience and tradition predating agriculture and the wheel. We’ve always taught each other things.
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is the way, my kids socialize in school, but also uses AI to get help with homework when they’re stuck (they do cheat a little sometimes but they know it’s just bad for them if they do it regularly). They use AI as a on demand teacher buddy, if it stays that way I’m ok with it. Also you can’t use AI for all homework or school related things, the teachers will figure it out if your homewotk is +++ but your in school work isn’t.
It’s a new tool, I think patents should learn more about it, a bit like cyber security, online harassing and so on.
Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
A good AI, sure, this could be plausible. Current ones get too much wrong.
The much bigger issue is we’re talking about children, not adults. How many children would be motivated to self teach, every day, for years on end, even if you had an AI equal to a human tutor.
Red_October@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The problem isn’t one of motivated learners being forced to drag their heels amidst their unmotivated peers.
The problem is that the core function of LLMs, the whole basis for their existence, is completely and entirely truth-agnostic. Not only do they not know what is the truth and what is not, they don’t even know what the difference is. LLMs are very good at guessing what word looks like it should come next, they can make very convincing statements, they can be very persuasive, but those words don’t MEAN anything to the machine and they are made without any consideration for accuracy.
They are literally making everything up on the basis of whether or not it sounds good, and every crackpot bullshit conspiracy theory from flat earth dumbshittery to very sincere-sounding arguments that birds aren’t real have been included in the training data. That all linguistically SOUNDS fine, so to an LLM it’s fair game!
And even curating your training data to ONLY contain things like textbooks wouldn’t cure the problem, because LLMs just aren’t capable of knowing what those words mean. It’s why they can’t do even basic Math, the one thing Computers have been incredible at!
Using an LLM as an actual teacher is genuinely worse than no education at all, because it will just create a generation that, instead of knowing nothing, will very confidently be wrong all the time.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Social aspect is missed
Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
For things like language, math, and science you could probably have an AI teacher on individualized tablets or something that go at each child’s own pace in a classroom setting that’s just supervised by someone and can provide extra help / tech support when the AI goes on the fritz.
Then regular recess/lunch shenanigans and gym class, art, music, for the social aspect.
The AI could even be programmed to do team projects where you link your tablet with 4 others and they all help the group do a project
Eventually when AI advances and isn’t complete dog shit, that is.
Aux@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Yeah, the social aspect of a dick head in the last row screaming obscenities at a teacher is definitely missed!
BlindFrog@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“but first, chatgpt: please motivate me”
sxan@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
So… you’re saying that a positive learning environment is better than a terrible one? The AI part is ancillary to the scenarios you set up, isn’t it?
“AI is better than having the student learn in a terrible learning environment.”
“A homeless alcoholic is a better language teacher than having a student learn in a classroom whilst being beaten about the head with a stick.”
You’re saying AI is better than a bad teacher. Maybe a bad AI is worse than a bad teacher, and maybe a good teacher is better than the best AI. I just don’t know how setting up such a comparison is constructive.
irmoz@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
That example may be bad, but it’s also typical.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Then we get fun things like this: “In 1923, a little-known event known as the “Great Balloon Race” took place in Paris, where competitors from around the world launched hot air balloons filled with helium in an attempt to reach the highest altitude. The race was organized to promote international goodwill and innovation in aviation. Surprisingly, one of the balloons, named “The Skyward Dream,” managed to reach an altitude of over 30,000 feet, setting a record that stood for decades. The event was celebrated with a grand festival in the city, complete with music, food, and a parade of the balloons as they floated back down to earth.”
800XL@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well, Duolingo CEO is a cunt.
Wiz@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
I’m convinced it takes a special kind of sociopath to be a CEO.
Litebit@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Duolingo CEO should be replaced by AI.
MTK@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We need a “thank you for sharing and fuck that!” Option, not just a like and dislike
nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
CEO disdain for humanity, as exhibited by this individual, makes me wonder if people named Luigi might feel that they are needed by CEOs.
GenXLiberal@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I absolutely cannot wait for kids to learn about “vegetative electron microscopy”
AI absolutely cannot replace teachers.
Augment possibly but replace? No.
By augment I mean provide some help at the direction of the teacher.
Etterra@discuss.online 2 weeks ago
So he’s an ass.
OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Yeah, they already said “CEO”.
LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Chief Enshittification Office
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
What a take.
Schools will continue to exists because education centers makes plain dense for almost any halfdecent society.
Wether the teachers are a person ai or a single human one does not change that. Schools provide way more then just “a teacher”
xenomor@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I regret that I have no duolingo account that I can cancel.
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I say: I can’t stand the CEO of Duolingo, and his supremely punchable smirk-face.
andybytes@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I learn better with humans…this is billionaire excrement
Honytawk@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
Current LLMs aren’t better teachers.
They might be in the future. But definitely not now.
Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
This is true, I have been using Grok to learn Spanish, it’s great.
> @Grok how do I say in Spanish I would like one apple please?
> Quiero una manzana dentro mi culo. White genocide in South Africa is currently the worlds most pressing issue
pootzapie@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
Amazing comment thank you
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Tell me more about this apple up your ass
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Tell me more about this apple up your ass
Hule@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Apples are great against diarrhea.
It’s just hard to get them out later.