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Company replaces humans with AI.
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Consumers notice a 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.
Okay buddy, that’s one way of telling people that your doubling down on your mistake.
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is there an alternative to duolingo that lets me learn multiple languages for a decent price? Rosetta stone was great and all, but i ain’t got 100 bucks to shell out for each language i want to half-assedly learn.
I just dumped Duolingo after this AI bullshit and am testing Mango Languages. So far I like it, but it is way different than Duolingo. Way less gamified and more focused on speaking. Plus, it gives cultural context to certain phrases that don’t literally translate, which I find interesting and valuable. if you are in the US, your library might offer a free subscription with your library card.
I heard a positive remark on Lemmy about https://www.languagetransfer.org/ recently and have been meaning to have a look
Absolutely love language transfer. At least for Greek it was great, the founder Mihalis is a British Cypriot.
You may want to check and see what your local library offers for language learning services, some provide Rosetta Stone to card holders free.
Nope, there are no ways to learn a language other than using an online service. Any other way is deemed impossible
Pimsleur. It’s very different than Duolingo, in that it is almost entirely audio-based. However, at least in my experience, it actually gets you to the point of speaking and understanding a language much more rapidly than Duolingo. Way, way less gamified though. It expects you to put in half an hour a day where you just concentrate on the lesson.
In other news: AI is a better human than Duolingo CEO
Depends what you want kids to learn.
Propaganda, yes; everything else, no…
I’m sick of these techbro dickheads thinking they’re an expert on everything just because they’ve got money.
Plus they basically have advanced degrees in enshittification
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.
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
Ah yes. “The poor”. Know all about them do you?
Considering the fact that I grew up in extreme poverty - yes, yes I know ALL about them. Unlike random muricans who’s only struggle is inability to buy a new iPhone each year.
You know, you’re winning me over. You do sound like an idiot.
Oh no!
Anyways…
lick them boots.
Yes cause a spoiled brat that constantly relied on their parents’ money growing up is sure to be shrewd and technical.
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.
Think less.
Think more.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
You can’t do anything alone. Isolation will be the downfall of society as we know it. I hope AI isn’t leading us in that path
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.
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.
Social aspect is missed
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.
Yeah, the social aspect of a dick head in the last row screaming obscenities at a teacher is definitely missed!
When you become an adult you still have to deal with dick heads screaming around you, I know this is Lemmy and people who come here might not have the best social skills, or fond memories of being in school. But schools are a micro representation of the world at large and it’s necessary for kids to have both these good and bad experiences in order to grow up to live in society and deal with all the shit life’s gonna throw at them.
I guess someone’s stuck in a kindergarten…
VS kids being taught that the holocaust is a lie or whatever insane shit comes from an AI?
The only insane shit here comes from the gasket between your chair and your keyboard.
I was talking about social teaching where kids pick up on adult body queues and facial expressions
So they too can feel depressed and worthless 😄
“but first, chatgpt: please motivate me”
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.”
Duolingo is literal trash.
And that just underlines my decision to quit Duolingo when it got contaminated with AI stop.
I can tell you from experience that AI was worse at teaching me a language than humans were.
So many rich psychopaths in capitalist societies.
The system is designed to make psychopaths successful and powerful.
and as such the system is beneficial to minorities (specific ones, not all).
which ones?
I think they were meaning the billionare class and they just phrased it very suspiciously.
You could be right but I’d rather let 'em answer the question for themself.
I was meaning the wealthy and the cutthroat.
All good. Maybe just be a bit more specific next time so it doesn’t sound like you’re saying “(((minorities)))”
you know, I still say punching people who say stupid stuff, would cut down the stupid stuff people say, by at least half…
I learn better with humans…this is billionaire excrement
I don’t. You’re data point is cancelled
Worst part is even after this idiot destroys his own company, he can just claim he was responsible for the highest ever peak stock share price (before he caused the decline).
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.
https://retractionwatch.com/2025/02/10/vegetative-electron-microscopy-fingerprint-paper-mill/
I’m so close to letting my streak die because of this dude. Fuck him.
My library (and check yours, too!) has free access to Mango Languages, and what I have tried there has been nice. But they don’t guilt trip you into doing lessons so you have to keep on top of it yourself.
I ended my streak and uninstalled a while ago. It went downhill when they got rid of the discussion section for the exercises. Add to that stupid sentences I most likely wouldn’t say in the real world .
I loved the conversation section 😭
I liked the short stories, but they messed that up, too.
Why wouldn’t you talk about a bear wearing its dresses?
Yes, the bear is wearing multiple dresses.
I’ve paid for the year, so I’ll do my damnedest to run up their gippity bill.
Mango Languages doesn’t have Esperanto.
So he’s an ass.
Yeah, they already said “CEO”.
Chief Enshittification Officer
When someone has a vested interest in the answer to a given question they are no longer a reliable source. We collectively need to stop giving a shit about celebrities and capitalists opinions.
