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Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

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201–210 of 282 posts

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty sick idea. Unfortunately I presume it involves sending your browsing data (e.g. page contents) to the server?

Yeah, though I've added lots of privacy protections to at least partially mitigate that: - There's a global blacklist of sites, as well as phrases in the title/URL (e.g. "bank") - You can blacklist sites yourself - Each sentence is run against filters checking for medical/legal/etc info, as well as checks for addresses, card/social security numbers, etc. All the checks are done client side - There are also some speci…

What about a whitelist? I might just be interested in only having certain sites, like this one or Reddit, translated into my target language. That way I can be certain it is only turned on for sites that I am OK with sharing browsing history and not be concerned that I might have missed adding something to the blacklist.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you think a chat UI is the apex UX? Most of us don't agree with that. On top of that, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini apps all sucks.

You don’t get it, you can just tell an AI to build you a UI as some html page and use that.

I do get it and you don't get that AI just can't do UX better than humans, and probably will take many, many years to catch up, if they do. I dare to say that UX is probably one of the few things humans will always do better.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#205
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this complaint too! I was impressed that they included Cantonese but it's frustrating that I don't know when it's pronunciation/accent is off. Have you found any other tools that work well for learning Cantonese as an English speaker?

Sadly there isn't one perfect resource. I find Hambaanglaang kinda useful. The complete cantonese books are good. And I have just started making flash cards. But, I am still just a beginner so take it with a huge grain of salt!

Thanks. I'll check that out. Glossika has some good sentences you can use as flashcards.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#206
post #52

I tried the Web Version. Started, then tried to create an account, but it kept looping, informing me that my email address does not exist in your system. Well, the “Create New Account” got kicked off and gets me in a loop of “Do not Exist”. I just went through the whole process again, and I'm back to the beginning. I’m going to assume this works better on the App.

Unclear what issue you hit, we'll look into it. Thanks for sharing.

Played around > tried creating an account > says email not in system > can neither create nor sign in. So, I don't have an account even if I wanted to create one.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#207
post #20

Thanks for working on this! Language learning really needs a breakthrough. Now, I tried the web app and chose to learn Greek as a beginner. And while I had better experience with your app than with ChatGPT or Gemini voice modes, I still got lost 5 minutes in because the AI tutor doesn't seem to have a plan for me, nor does it "see" my struggles. For example, after asking me about a hobby, it gives me a long sentence…

Language Transfer[0] will continue to be a better resource than any AI course. It’s very hard to beat a human that has put in time crafting a logical way to teach a language with the appropriate ramp ups. The Greek course on there is fantastic. And it’s free with zero ads. Best language learning tool I’ve ever used period.

[0]: https://www.languagetransfer.org/

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope https://imgur.com/a/m3svUky

> https://imgur.com/a/m3svUky That's an image of text. Is it supposed to provide more evidentiary value than the word "Nope" above it would by itself? I'll bet you I can show you a screenshot where "ChatGPT" says whatever your heart desires.

I started using o3 yesterday. Turns out it has sycophancy behavior. That is good to know. Regardless, I'm beginning to enjoy my errors because it reminds me of my humanity.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t get it, you can just tell an AI to build you a UI as some html page and use that.

I do get it and you don't get that AI just can't do UX better than humans, and probably will take many, many years to catch up, if they do. I dare to say that UX is probably one of the few things humans will always do better.

You’re still thinking about mass market UX.

A UX someone builds for themselves and makes sense to them is going to be way better than something a designer puts together for the masses. That’s the promise of AI, totally custom software down to the individual user level.

Re: Launch HN: Issen (YC F24) – Personal AI language tutor

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do get it and you don't get that AI just can't do UX better than humans, and probably will take many, many years to catch up, if they do. I dare to say that UX is probably one of the few things humans will always do better.

You’re still thinking about mass market UX. A UX someone builds for themselves and makes sense to them is going to be way better than something a designer puts together for the masses. That’s the promise of AI, totally custom software down to the individual user level.

I will still bet that great apps with much better UX than your average vibecoder will still continue to make people rich.
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