The techbro asswipes that run Duolingo have been making a lot of noise about AI lately, boasting about how much they’re going to use it while firing all of the actual human beings who used to make their lessons 
Their newest AI feature is a new lesson type called Video Calls where you chat with an AI bot in your target language. The bot asks you questions about basic topics and then does follow-up questions based on your answers while reacting and commenting on the stuff you say. It manages to kind of emulate the awkwardness of conversation practice in an actual language class with some rando you don’t know too well
I’ve only done a few of these because it feels really weird and creepy talking to a cartoon character on your phone that’s actually just a mask for an electricity-wasting corpo machine. Anyway, the AI just randomly brought up my pet that I mentioned a few weeks ago the last time I did one of these lessons. So yes, the Duolingo chatbot retains any information you disclose to it. Cool 
The kicker is that this shit is gated behind the Duolingo Max paywall which costs 170 bucks a year, or 13 bucks a month (I run a modded apk with unlocked paid features, I’m not paying a cent for a fucking app)
Edit: I actually wouldn’t be opposed to paying for an app, it’s the subscription model I’m vehemently opposed to. I will never rent an app or program
Duolingo has had a marked drop in quality lately. Lots of the translations are outright wrong now. Oftentimes the translation of characters doesn’t even match the options they present to you.
The only utility of Duolingo is the extreme gamification with streaks and leagues. The company is extremely aware of this, which is why new lesson types and content are so slow to roll out, because they can attract and retain more users by focusing dev time on new gamification mechanics.
Wait how did you get the modded APK?
Also HelloChinese is better if that’s the language you are learning. Doesn’t even require an account. You only need to login if you want shared progress across multiple devices.
Don’t engage with AI slop.
I run a modded apk with unlocked paid features, I’m not paying a cent for a fucking app
Hey now, you’re going to make Lily very upset
I’m convinced none of the people making these language learning apps understand what the actual use case is, I would be more likely to pay not to have to do this kind of stuff
idk
I kind of like the idea of getting able to practice conversation without burdening an actual person with my dogshit grasp of the language.
I run an Ollama server and use it to practice Chinese. Same with Deepseek.
Actually a nice use case for “AI”, but I would have no idea when the LLM model is making shit up, so there’s that. Still pretty damn useful until I’m good enough to not burden my Chinese friends with boring ass extremely basic conversations.
From my limited experience with these video calls, I can see a chatbot like this being useful as an additional learning resource …if it was FOSS and able to be locally run
practice conversation without burdening an actual person with my dogshit grasp of the language
You’re just gonna have to face that hurdle at some point no matter what
side bonus, they get to fingerprint your voice and mannerisms and sell that off to whoever wants to buy it
I did a video call once where the bot freaked out and thought I was saying random one or two word “sentences” constantly cutting off lily. I only had to say like 1 actual sentence. It said I did great on the call. lol OK.
That said I hate the calls. It has the ability to be useful if you could say “I don’t understand” and lily would explain something to you, instead she just continues off the next thing she was going to say like nothing happened. Like WTF.
So, anyone know any FOSS alternatives?
Qlango
Hey, I like your name. To be honest with you, I have a cheesy one. If you play games, find someone who appreciates playing the same game with you and connect. People will practice with you if you’ve got a base understanding of the language. You’ve gotta bring do the work first. Best I can think of. Not a software, but a future-homie.
I run a modded apk with unlocked paid features
Is that like ReVanced but for Duolingo?
Pretty much.
