Duolingo deletes all its TikTok videos after AI backlash—and then returns with a strange message (www.fastcompany.com)
from return2ozma@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 22 May 23:07
https://lemmy.world/post/30089427

Paywall removed: archive.is/1o2R2

#technology

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WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world on 22 May 23:16 next collapse

Fucking click bait title

etchinghillside@reddthat.com on 22 May 23:29 collapse

Save us a click - cliffnotes?

apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world on 22 May 23:33 next collapse

Strange message,

Let’s just say we’re experimenting with silence,” a spokesperson for Duolingo told Fast Company over email. “Sometimes, the best way to make noise is to disappear first."

CosmoNova@lemmy.world on 22 May 23:43 next collapse

This from a company that‘s supposed to teach you languages… I am laughing out loud.

oce@jlai.lu on 22 May 23:48 collapse

That’s actually funny.

ccunning@lemmy.world on 22 May 23:50 next collapse
magnetosphere@fedia.io on 23 May 00:35 collapse

A weird, kinda relevant but actually not tik tok video. Duolingo’s policies haven’t changed, so I don’t care what they post.

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world on 22 May 23:52 next collapse

Is Elon consulting for them?

TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works on 22 May 23:51 next collapse

just marketing I assume. duo has always been a weird marketer

ininewcrow@lemmy.ca on 22 May 23:55 next collapse

It doesn’t matter if its good news, bad news, strange news, weird news … its news and they’re all talking about you

rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee on 23 May 00:01 next collapse

Their idea of marketing is to literally threaten people. And it works.

AtariDump@lemmy.world on 23 May 02:40 collapse
can@sh.itjust.works on 23 May 02:02 next collapse

“Let’s just say we’re experimenting with silence,” a spokesperson for Duolingo told Fast Company over email. “Sometimes, the best way to make noise is to disappear first.”

Owlboi@lemm.ee on 23 May 03:02 collapse

considering they said theyre gonna replace all their employees with ai, i wouldnt be surprised if this is the marketing departments’ last backlash.

natecox@programming.dev on 23 May 01:28 next collapse

Yeah I’m dropping my super subscription and my usage of the app. Fuck AI, and fuck the companies using it to deepen the enshitification of tech.

jjjalljs@ttrpg.network on 23 May 01:49 next collapse

I canceled my subscription. In part because fuck using AI to hurt labor, but also unemployment. Capitalists want us to spend spend spend, but they don’t want to give us any money to spend.

filister@lemmy.world on 23 May 03:00 next collapse

Exactly that. Everyone is obsessed with eternal growth, pushing SaaS offerings our throats and even more subscriptions. There is a real estate crisis, where putting a roof over your head becomes an even more distant dream for the majority of the working population and greedy companies are firing people and replacing them with AI and then they wonder why people are revolting. Eat the rich!

aesthelete@lemmy.world on 23 May 03:26 next collapse

Capitalists want us to spend spend spend, but they don’t want to give us any money to spend.

The capitalists want you to spend spend spend, but they’re a dying breed. The neofeudalists – the group that really runs stuff at this point – don’t really care what you do because they’re too busy extracting the wealth of the capitalists.

jjjalljs@ttrpg.network on 23 May 03:32 collapse

I guess it’s like the difference between a parasite that doesn’t kill the host, and one that does. The current breed looks like it’s going to kill the host.

aesthelete@lemmy.world on 23 May 03:57 collapse

💯

When you have so much capital, the only place to get any meaningful amount more from is the capitalists underneath you whose business you haven’t turned into a dried out husk yet.

resipsaloquitur@lemm.ee on 23 May 06:59 next collapse

They’re desperate to bring back slavery.

malin@thelemmy.club on 23 May 14:11 collapse

Slavery never went away, they just added extra steps.

malin@thelemmy.club on 23 May 14:10 collapse

You shouldn’t have subscribed in the first place.

theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world on 23 May 02:24 next collapse

Just uninstall and stop engaging with Duolingo marketing.

Sometimes, the best way to make noise is to disappear first.

Great advice! I’ll do just that. Uninstalled.

Jrockwar@feddit.uk on 23 May 06:39 next collapse

Even assuming we’re okay with using AI for language learning - then why would anyone pay for Duolingo instead of the many LLMs that people already use and pay for?

They’ve alienated their customer base hard. And this marketing video pretending they are siding with the users and against “their corporate overlords” is horribly tone deaf.

essteeyou@lemmy.world on 24 May 00:11 collapse

Perhaps because their app and its gamification of learning is addictive and quite fun.

Jrockwar@feddit.uk on 24 May 11:38 next collapse

What you’re saying absolutely makes sense. However as someone with ADHD I couldn’t relate any less, I wish I could get addicted to something like that and not lose interest after ten minutes!

ephrin@sh.itjust.works on 25 May 16:49 collapse

This is it for me. All of this has me pretty down, because the gamification works really well on me and I enjoy it. But fuck AI.

illi@lemm.ee on 23 May 07:31 next collapse

Going to take this opportunity to ask if anyone knows about a good alternative?

MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world on 23 May 07:41 next collapse

I’ve downloaded, but haven’t tried it yet, but hear good things about Mango Languages Learning.

weksa@lemm.ee on 23 May 08:21 collapse

I enjoy Mango a lot more than Duolingo. I didn’t like Duolingo’s rote memorization of phrases. Mango adds structure and explanation, so you build and compose.

Also, worth mentioning that you might get free access to Mango through your public library.

froggycar360@slrpnk.net on 23 May 11:40 next collapse

Pimsleur is waaaay better. Not as gamified tho.

bluGill@fedia.io on 23 May 13:15 collapse

There are many many different people with different advice. Just do a search in any engine, eliminate the AI-slop and use what of the rest seems like you can do.

The most important factor is putting in your hours of study. You can never learn a language if you spend all your time learning how to learn a language. You will never learn a language if you good at one basic and never study anything else (which is what most programs, including doulingo will get you, so you need to try several different study methods)

illi@lemm.ee on 23 May 13:56 collapse

I like to ask people for their opinions

Flemmy@lemm.ee on 23 May 08:24 next collapse

And so the A.I. larp begins.

Just randos larping as AI mainframe or whatever.

SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world on 23 May 09:55 next collapse

www.tiktok.com/@duolingo/…/7506578962697456939?la…

So they’re trying to pivot from “we are firing all our translators and turing our app into AI slop” to "we’re anti establishment and anti CEO?

Which C-Suite came up with this shit?

I’ll never use this garbage app now.

gwilikers@lemmy.ml on 23 May 11:50 next collapse

Hahahaha. God they really are so fucking stupid.

Like I love how nobody seems to question the expertise of CEOs. Like, I know the board structure, they consult experts and make decisions. That makes sense (I mean it has problems but it makes sense). But if you’re choosing a CEO for a Telecoms company, and the last job he did was being the CEO of a successful kitchenware company, I’m gonna question the degree to which this person can do their job well. There are so many CEOs who seem completely disconnected from the company they are in charge of.

TheFriar@lemm.ee on 23 May 13:38 collapse

Because no matter the business, the game is capitalism. Who has the cutthroat, borderline personality to “make the tough calls” (read: weigh the cost benefit analysis of screwing the next group of people).

It doesn’t matter what the business is. Because it’s just about cost and benefit to these people. If they can cut costs, they will. If the benefits are lacking in that people will be outraged enough to stop buying, or the lawsuits will cost more than the profit increase percentage (factored into the actual viability of the claims and the affected group’s buying power for legal representation), then they don’t do it.

Nowhere does “but is it right” factor in. It’s only “will people find out, and if they do can we weather the storm.”

Capitalism should die.

eleitl@lemm.ee on 23 May 12:43 next collapse

I have 5 person annual plan which is still useful if you’re not limited to English – e.g. French is a bad match there. But I will be checking out Mango for sure.

TheFriar@lemm.ee on 23 May 13:33 collapse

Or babel. Anything but Duolingo at this point seems like the best bet

CandleTiger@programming.dev on 23 May 23:30 collapse

Babbel is working ok for me for learning French.

Just lessons without all the hearts and ads and crap

[deleted] on 23 May 19:15 next collapse

.

nixcamic@lemmy.world on 25 May 06:09 collapse

I mean Duolingo has been riding the “questionable or insane marketing” wave for years. It’s hard to say if this is just them taking that a bit to far or if they really are of their rocker this time. I mean their ceo has generally seemed fairly based in the past as far as tech CEO’s go.

MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world on 23 May 10:09 next collapse

That reminds me, I should start practicing German on Babbel (not sponsored, but open to sponsorships :P ) www.babbel.com/mobile

malin@thelemmy.club on 23 May 14:09 collapse

Is babbel free software?

standarduser@lemm.ee on 23 May 16:30 next collapse

Doing a quick check I see that it’s like $17 for a monthly plan. Yikes

MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world on 23 May 18:37 collapse

I don’t think so, no :(

MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world on 23 May 10:27 collapse

The TikTok post has been up for days by now. If this was truly a disgruntled employee posting against the company, it would have been taken down by down despite the passwords being changed. This is a corpo post.