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.
I’ve been using Duolingo for a few years now and honestly, the quality has always been spotty, at least with Japanese. I also kind of hate how it teaches all languages through a burger-centric cultural lens
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.
There’s a forum called mobilism where modders post all kinds of apps and games hacked to enable premium features. I recently installed a modded Busuu
Note: It’s a site run by a pro-government Ukrainian and they have this message pinned
spoiler
Many of you don’t know this since it’s not relevant to the functioning of Mobilism, but I am Ukrainian. Mobilism also has Ukrainian servers (among others), Ukrainian coders, and is obviously home to many of my fellow compatriots. You’re all currently using a Ukrainian site.
Ukraine has been invaded by a country that feels no remorse for dead civilians or human suffering, and is beholden to the whims of a tyrant and his pursuit of imperial glory. We are fighting valiantly and will continue doing so. We will not give up an inch of Ukrainian soil without a fight. We will stand as Europe’s shield against the land that for the past ten years we’ve referred to as Mordor.
To clear up misconceptions: Russia claims that they are not targeting civilians: so far, Russian shelling and bombing have hit hospitals, ambulances, kindergartens, universities, and tens of thousands of homes; a Russian tank drove over a car with the driver (an elderly civilian) still inside. So, if they are claiming they only target the military, then either their aim is even worse than we thought, or they are blatantly lying, like they have lied for weeks about their intentions for Ukraine.
Putin claims Ukrainians are Nazis and his goal is to de-nazify Ukraine. Ukraine is the only country in Europe whose head of state is Jewish (elected with 73% of the vote). In the last election, a coalition of all far-right parties won 2.15% of the popular vote, and since that didn’t meet the threshold of 5% failed to gain any parliamentary seats. What’s more, I’m Jewish, as are my wife and many of our Ukrainian friends. One of the bomb shelters a part of my family is using is a gay club in downtown Kyiv. The only likeness Ukrainians have to Nazis is that we are now at war with Russians.
Putin claims Ukrainians and the West forced him to “defend Russia”. Ukraine has never threatened Russia militarily. The only way it threatened Russia is by showing that it can thrive without it as a democracy. Russia’s claims that they are somehow provoked into attacking us is akin to this: a wife left her abusive alcoholic ex, took the children, and issued a restraining order- so he killed her cat, trashed her car, and now showed up in her new home with a gun, all while blaming this on her and the police.
“Current sanctions are enough:” In 2008, Russia annexed a piece of Georgia. The international community offered sanctions and a slap on the wrist. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and started a bloody conflict in the east of Ukraine which had been claiming our lives for 8 years now. More sanctions followed. After Russia’s total invasion of Ukraine the West implemented its most severe sanctions. And yet, they do not deter Russia from continuing the war. We’re not looking for NATO to bring in troops, we’ll do the fighting for our own country. Thank you to all the countries that are providing us with lethal aid and defensive equipment. We will use it for as long as we are able.
Слава Україні!
If you know less slavaukraini-pilled sources, let me know
Also, I’m learning Japanese
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.
