Any recommended alternatives?

• Following backlash to statements that Duolingo will be AI-first, threatening jobs in the process, CEO Luis von Ahn has tried to walk back his statement.
• Unfortunately, the CEO doesn’t walk back any of the key points he originally outlined, choosing instead to try, and fail to placate the maddening crowd.
• Unfortunately the PR team may soon be replaced by AI as this latest statement has done anything but instil confidence in the firm’s users.

A completely optional, side objective that has no bearing on anything else? You can completely ignore the leader board and still progress. It's not competitive.

Yeah of course, winning or losing a game has no bearing on anything. It's still winning or losing.

The main objective is to complete lessons. You have to pay to do that or wait for energy to replenish.

I remember easily getting gems for free. Also the streak basically doesn't matter at all. What made me uninstall is the slow pace. It felt like I was stuck on the same words and topics forever. It felt like I was not actually learning anything, which if you've ever started learning a language if a formal setting, is very apparent.

Check out "Language Drops" and "Rosetta Stone" if you're looking for replacements. They both have very different approaches to language learning (both from each other and from Duolingo), but their content is at the very least much better curated than Duolingo's.

I haven't gone out of my way to check but AFAIK neither of them is jumping on the AI-before-anything-else train.

My recommendation is Language Transfer, a freely-available system for multiple languages that, in my opinion, helps you to think in another language better than any other system I have tried.

• Following backlash to statements that Duolingo will be AI-first, threatening jobs in the process, CEO Luis von Ahn has tried to walk back his statement.
• Unfortunately, the CEO doesn’t walk back any of the key points he originally outlined, choosing instead to try, and fail to placate the maddening crowd.
• Unfortunately the PR team may soon be replaced by AI as this latest statement has done anything but instil confidence in the firm’s users.

I hear good things about Pimsleur as an alternative.

Learn New Languages Online: Effective Programs for Beginners

Learn languages online with Pimsleur's effective language learning programs. Start learning another language in a fun way at your own pace. Sign up today!

Pimsleur (www.pimsleur.com)

Check out "Language Drops" and "Rosetta Stone" if you're looking for replacements. They both have very different approaches to language learning (both from each other and from Duolingo), but their content is at the very least much better curated than Duolingo's.

I haven't gone out of my way to check but AFAIK neither of them is jumping on the AI-before-anything-else train.

AI is social cancer

It's a lie told by marketing companies that have gaslit artists into automating their creativity and gaslit governments into automating fascism

How do these people become CEOs they're as thick as several short planks nailed together.

Firstly every single company that has tried to replace its employees with AI has always ended up having issues. Secondly even if that wasn't the case, people are not going to be happy about it so it's not something you should brag publicly about.

If you're going to replace all of your employees with AI just do it quietly, that way if it fails it's not a public failure, and if it succeeds (it won't) then you talk about it.

I'm a long time user of Duolingo and you earn plenty to give yourself the occasional streak freeze if you can't go two days without doing a lesson. It's not really as predatory as it sounds. It's nothing like pay to win type games.

Fuck Duolingo for the AI shit though, don't mistake me for a Duolingo simp thinking their blameless. It's just that the monetization is not as predatory as it sounds.

In another thread someone told me you can buy gems or something to keep your streak going.

That would've made me uninstall long before his comments.

The old tree system was much better, it allowed you to mix exercises from different topics. The new path system locks you into one topic until you know all the sentences by rote.

How do these people become CEOs they're as thick as several short planks nailed together.

Firstly every single company that has tried to replace its employees with AI has always ended up having issues. Secondly even if that wasn't the case, people are not going to be happy about it so it's not something you should brag publicly about.

If you're going to replace all of your employees with AI just do it quietly, that way if it fails it's not a public failure, and if it succeeds (it won't) then you talk about it.

"Freezing" your streak is just silly, even if they offer it for free. Is this just for online clout, so you can brag (falsely) to others how long you haven't broken a streak?

If an alcoholic goes 10 years without drinking, then has a beer, the streak is broken. Doesn't mean you can't recover and improve, but it is what it is. It's dishonest to pretend it didn't happen, especially if you're comparing yourself to others...

“AI is creating uncertainty for all of us, and we can respond to this with fear or curiosity. I’ve always encouraged our team to embrace new technology (that’s why we originally built for mobile instead of desktop), and we are taking that same approach with AI. By understanding the capabilities and limitations of AI now, we can stay ahead of it and remain in control of our own product and our mission,” writes von Ahn.

Now please explain in more detail how this advice should be followed, practically, by someone you just fired because AI was cheaper. Give examples of how they can "stay ahead of it" so as to "remain in control of the product and mission" they are no longer employed to work on. How should they "embrace" this transition and "respond with curiosity" to no being newly unable to afford food or rent? "Uncertainty for all of us" my ass.

What I'd wonder is why it's such massive expensive for Duolingo to hire 2 or 3 people to cover a language anyway. Presumably most of the work is contractual - hire somebody competent to produce a course, get somebody to say the lines, refine the course based on feed back and that's mostly it.