Duolingo switched from humans to AI so I switched from Duolingo to AI.
If I go missing, know that Duo got to me.
I was carrying on with the Sisyphean task of living when I got a notification yesterday: Duolingo, the app that keeps threatening me with violence for not doing my lessons on time, is now also threatening to replace its human contractors with AI.
It is rumoured that they will be dropping courses for 148 new languages with the use of AI, further threatening humanity into Duo’s subservience.
While I love the prospect of having the choice to learn from such a plethora of languages, it does raise concerns…
Would AI-generated courses really be as good as the old ones?
Don’t answer that, that’s a rhetorical question; the answer is no, AI will never teach me my Russian using sentences like “my horse eats glass” and similar unhinged phrases. While it is heartwarming that I could just learn Toki Pona on a whim at 3AM once Duolingo offers it to us linguistic plebes, maybe using AI for tailoring the course wouldn’t be the best idea. Especially considering how bad LLMs are at threatening you into things, unlike Duo — who I bet is shuddering from the fear of layoffs too.
So when the time comes, I will do what is most logical: replace Duolingo with AI.
Honestly, it just makes so much sense, if we’re losing the human touch Duolingo has anyway. If you’re a regular user of LLMs like ChatGPT, it has enough information about you in its memory to assess your personality, likes and dislikes.
All you need to do is ask ChatGPT politely: “Provide me some prompts that I could use in a chat to turn you into my personal Duolingo!” Boom — you’ve got a Duo without the demeanor. If you’re a tinkerer, you could go a step further and use AI tools to tailor an entire app for yourself. The sky’s the limit — or maybe I should say… небо — это предел (subtle flex).
Now I bide my time. Waiting for Duo’s retirement. Waiting to break my streak, without having my family kidnapped.
Until then, au revoir, as they say in Spain.