Wait you did 1435 day streak on the FREE version of the app with the hearts and the endless weird ads etc.? No wonder you didn't learn anything. I'm not shilling for Duolingo or AI here but the paid version of the app is much better and much less weird and alienating
It’s wild how quickly “personalized learning” turns into “algorithm babysitting.” I’m not against using AI to support or supplement learning, but it should be a co-pilot, not the entire flight crew. Wonder how long before we start outsourcing empathy, too.
There's so many issues with that Axios article this piece links to. Some really dumb and unchallenged statements from their main source (Amodei), like " 'Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don't have jobs.' That's one very possible scenario rattling in his mind as AI power expands exponentially."
Or "OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and other large AI companies keep vastly improving the capabilities of their large language models (LLMs) to meet and beat human performance with more and more tasks. This is happening and accelerating", that last clause being the absolute worse. This is just a more subtle version of the "AI Doomers" who try to hype their AI products by talking about how scary and powerful their LLM data-stealing-and-averaging model is.
oh a blog where I happen to know something. I'm an applied linguist.
The paradox of language learning is that you need humans to 'do it right' but something called 'language learning stress' blocks you. Replace that with a tireless friendly responder and that melts away. That is probably the only interesting thing about education and AI imo.
While dude is a moron, the app works and is founded in real science.
Seriously, with all the free AI tools available, with a bit of creativity you can get AI language lessons for free. I do it all the time. Thanks for the heads-up. Unfortunately, as much as we dislike the idea of AI taking jobs, that cat is out of the bag. The predictions for entry level jobs looks dire. The fight is going to be for a basic income. I would like to see a sort of WW2 GI type of bill to support people while paying for training and education, and that continues as a supplement until your wage or salary reaches a level where a person can comfortably save a portion of their income. A lot of weeds to pick through, I know.
👏 I literally just the week started taking language lessons from a human and decided to … well, begin the emotional work necessary to say goodbye to my Spanish streak! (I can’t speak it even slightly either.) it’s amazing the hold that app can have, despite being manifestly ineffective.
I wasn’t aware this person existed until today and now I hate him as much as I’ve ever hated anyone. Turns out not all birds are good.
Joshua P. Hill (@jphillll.bsky.social) has a thread on Bluesky of alternatives ppl suggested to him to replace Duo
Wait you did 1435 day streak on the FREE version of the app with the hearts and the endless weird ads etc.? No wonder you didn't learn anything. I'm not shilling for Duolingo or AI here but the paid version of the app is much better and much less weird and alienating
It’s wild how quickly “personalized learning” turns into “algorithm babysitting.” I’m not against using AI to support or supplement learning, but it should be a co-pilot, not the entire flight crew. Wonder how long before we start outsourcing empathy, too.
⬖ Broadcast from the Frequency of Reason hideout: https://tinyurl.com/39hx4kjv
There's so many issues with that Axios article this piece links to. Some really dumb and unchallenged statements from their main source (Amodei), like " 'Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don't have jobs.' That's one very possible scenario rattling in his mind as AI power expands exponentially."
Or "OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and other large AI companies keep vastly improving the capabilities of their large language models (LLMs) to meet and beat human performance with more and more tasks. This is happening and accelerating", that last clause being the absolute worse. This is just a more subtle version of the "AI Doomers" who try to hype their AI products by talking about how scary and powerful their LLM data-stealing-and-averaging model is.
oh a blog where I happen to know something. I'm an applied linguist.
The paradox of language learning is that you need humans to 'do it right' but something called 'language learning stress' blocks you. Replace that with a tireless friendly responder and that melts away. That is probably the only interesting thing about education and AI imo.
While dude is a moron, the app works and is founded in real science.
Seriously, with all the free AI tools available, with a bit of creativity you can get AI language lessons for free. I do it all the time. Thanks for the heads-up. Unfortunately, as much as we dislike the idea of AI taking jobs, that cat is out of the bag. The predictions for entry level jobs looks dire. The fight is going to be for a basic income. I would like to see a sort of WW2 GI type of bill to support people while paying for training and education, and that continues as a supplement until your wage or salary reaches a level where a person can comfortably save a portion of their income. A lot of weeds to pick through, I know.
👏 I literally just the week started taking language lessons from a human and decided to … well, begin the emotional work necessary to say goodbye to my Spanish streak! (I can’t speak it even slightly either.) it’s amazing the hold that app can have, despite being manifestly ineffective.