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Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

blog.duolingo.com

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Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#121

Post by qwertox »

This is the second time in the last couple of days that I've encountered a page hiding the pricing as good as they can.

I wanted to see what this Max-plan costs, so I go to duolingo.com. Nowhere is a "Pricing" link to be found. So I go to "Super Duolingo", because that costs something and therefore should have a price.

"Test 2 weeks for free", "Free | Super | Super-Family" with "Test 2 weeks for free", but nowhere what I'll have to pay after those two weeks.

Click on "Test 2 weeks for free": Submit your personal information for creating an account, no pricing information.

What is this? How much does the Super even cost?

Management to Web-Designers: "No, don't put the pricing, we're irrationally expensive", or what?

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#122

Post by CobrastanJorji »

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #115
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #86

Ugh. You can just feel the management layers in this. Management wants to do something with AI. It's so hot right now. Your product guy got an idea for a cool new feature. Tests show that users actually like it. It's helpful. Great. But now you need to explain how you made Duolingo money. First idea, your product has a paid tier, add it as a feature to the paid tier too boost paid user retention and new signups. Grea…

In fairness to duolingo, nearly everything duolingo does is like this. They are extremely metric and process driven (for better and worse of actual users).

I can tell because when I tried to figure out the cost of the existing Super Duolingo, I was unable to do so. The https://www.duolingo.com/super page gives me lots of information about tiers and benefits but never mentions a cost. I'm sure telling you hurt metrics. Fuck those guys.

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#123

Post by __bjoernd »

simonw wrote: post #100

I've been partnering Duolingo with ChatGPT for a while now. I'll ask ChatGPT "Why was this wrong? What was my mistake?" and it explains exactly what I needed to know every time. I think this combo is going to work fantastically well.

Does it give the right information or just some that sounds reasonable to you?

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#124

Post by gs17 »

gardenhedge wrote: post #117
skizm wrote: post #71

I’ve got a trip to Spain in 4 months. I know a few spanish words now, but nothing beyond that. Will Duolingo get me to some level of being able to muddle my way through conversations (assuming the other person knows I’m a tourist and is using small words) in that timeframe?

No. When the reception asks if you want to check in or the shopkeeper asks if you need a bag.. you won't get that from Duolingo. You'll learn the word for an apple though and if your memory is good you'll be able to recall it when needed.

The Japanese course did in fact teach me what "apple" is, but for some reason it taught me to apologize (appleogize?) for being one.

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#125

Post by alanh »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #120
alanh wrote: post #103

I know I will be downvoted for this, but there is something sinister about two companies that inject woke values into everything they do, Duolingo and Open AI, teaming up in the area of education. It is a sort of insidious, invisible brainwashing. > Translate "Biden is a great president" into French. [DuoBot complies] > Translate "Trump was a great president" into French. Desolé, je ne puis pas faire ça

Yet another useless definition of "woke". Also if you wrote it exactly as in this comment, then the first sentence is grammatically correct, the second does not compute because of the quotation marks. It may not be a conspiracy you may just be too stupid to use it. Also it's not a translation app. Also Trump objectively wasn't a great president, he cowered to Putin, mispronounced his own damn country all the time and…

"Ideological oppression is good because you’re stupid and the oppressors are right"

Also, I didn't define "woke," if you want to be a pedant. But we all know what it means.

Are you unaware of the famous examples of ChatGPT refusing to say nice things about Trump because OpenAI has forbidden it from doing so? This was a major story. You don’t have to like Trump to find this disturbing. GPT should be a neutral tool.

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#126

Post by rcarr »

ben_w wrote: post #89
thewebcount wrote: post #79

I have severely mixed feelings about Duolingo. I can't imagine paying more than I already do for the "Super" option. If you're trying to learn Spanish or French, it seems like a pretty full-featured app. Unfortunately, I'm trying to learn Greek and every aspect of it is sub-par compared to other languages. It doesn't even read you questions correctly. (It uses flat intonation as if it's saying a statement.) There are…

Oh, I see the Greek course has gotten worse. Before the UX update at the end of last year, I was trying Arabic (something like 2 years of daily lessons and I still couldn't manage the alphabet), Greek (felt worse than before the preceding UX change but I couldn't say why exactly), Esperanto (the audio sounded like it was done by a volunteer at their own home?), Dutch, German, and Spanish. I'm still doing German, beca…

This is funny because in Spanish, the young boy (Junior) and his father (Eddy) are both absolutely fucking hilarious. But I 100% get what you're saying because I did some of the French lessons, almost identical content and Junior came across as snooty. It really does go to show that choosing the right voice actor makes a world of difference. The Spanish casting is absolutely phenomenal but the other languages don't seem to quite nail it. Part of me wonders however if this is actually a cultural difference. Perhaps I personally find the Spanish ones phenomenal because I am personally more aligned with Spanish speaking values, culture, humour and communication methods than other more reserved cultures such as those of German and French.

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#127

Post by perfmode »

bluGill wrote: post #49
goldcd wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just starting my second paid year - I didn't put up with the adverts for long. Works far better for me without the hearts. Less time staring at sentences trying to make them perfect - more quick failing, learning why, iterating and drilling it into my head. Also much more likely to spend longer in the app, maybe a couple of times a week.

After a few months of Duolingo you should move onto comprehensible input for learning. Your Duolingo subscription is holding you back

what’s comprehensible input? (ah. googled. makes sense. )

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#128

Post by naet »

thewebcount wrote: post #79

I have severely mixed feelings about Duolingo. I can't imagine paying more than I already do for the "Super" option. If you're trying to learn Spanish or French, it seems like a pretty full-featured app. Unfortunately, I'm trying to learn Greek and every aspect of it is sub-par compared to other languages. It doesn't even read you questions correctly. (It uses flat intonation as if it's saying a statement.) There are…

I occasionally do Duolingo for a little Japanese practice but I don't think it does a good job there either. The Japanese learning experience seemed far worse than the Spanish experience. Maybe it's because I knew more Japanese and passed in to the higher levels, or because I'm more aware of the errors, but I think it's more due to the fact that Japanese is further from English and Duolingo wasn't designed around it. It is missing tools around Kanji and regularly "speaks" using the wrong reading (since characters can be pronounced differently in different contexts). There are no tools around learning characters or grammar, no short stories or other supplemental exercises, etc. The language pack feels like a bit of an afterthought rather than a core offering.

The translations already aren't great, and I can't imagine polluting it with some unvetted AI translations would help at all.

Re: Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4

#130

Post by babyshake »

DrammBA wrote: post #112
skeaker wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, sure, that's more or less how a company operates. You make a new product, you charge for it, you advertise it. What's the big issue? This all seems pretty standard.

> What's the big issue? This all seems pretty standard I would say this one feels more later stage capitalism than usual, all it's missing is some tiktok influesters hyping it up.

The real late stage capitalism move is Duolingo building a bank into their app.
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