Mastodawn

The Drop Bear 2.0 3d ago

@bullivant Ditto! I already binned it and I wonder how many others will do so now

@dropbear This pillock does seem to be trying to do a Tesla to his shitty product.

The Drop Bear 2.0 3d ago

@bullivant And it seems to be working 🤷‍♀️

@dropbear Yeap.

@bullivant @dropbear hahaha. "Do a Tesla" :)

Florent Moncomble 3d ago

@nomdeb @bullivant @dropbear Officially added to my vocabulary

HarriettMB 3d ago

@bullivant In his mind, schools are just childcare facilities???? 😮
How is he still the CEO of Duolingo?

0xDECAFBAD 3d ago

@HarriettMB @bullivant Because VC-funded company CEO is pretty much a perfect selection filter for sociopaths.

PoopiSan 3d ago

@bullivant Better aka cheaper?

@poopi Yeap. It's just objectively ridiculous. He seems to be trolling his users.

AlexTECPlayz 3d ago

@bullivant And I JUST started using Duolingo. Fuck's sake.

Brian Grinter 3d ago

@alextecplayz @bullivant ugh - I have a 1000+ day streak…

Maybe hurt them in the ratings and reviews…

Mimi (He/him)3d ago

@bullivant Do you know a good alternative app? I use Duo but the app is more bothered about user engagement than actual teaching and it doesn't care about the difficulty of what the user is learning when it hands out points, so you can rack up points doing very basic maths yet earn few points learning a difficult language.

I also use an app by BNR Languages which is good but it doesn't do grammar so is limited.

@mimi Anki, a good book for your target language and any Reddit/Discord servers focusing to your target language.

Coralie Renée 2d ago

@bullivant @mimi

Learning by comprehensive input is definitely helpful. And exchanging in the targeted language.

I stay away from grammar for quite some time until I speak at an intermediary level at least...

Fay 3d ago

@mimi @bullivant saysomethingin.com is much better than duolingo.

Jaime Herazo 3d ago

@mimi
I've heard that the old, well regarded Pimsleur courses are very modern and app-oriented these days, and much cheaper than they used to be, but don't know from experience, just passing along advice from someone else
@bullivant

Daryl Joseph Ducharme 3d ago

@mimi
I've used Busuu. Connects you with other native speakers who are learning your native language. So you can practice listening and speaking with native speakers.
@bullivant

Me 3d ago

@mimi @bullivant
Mango is available via some public libraries for free. Better than DL.

Mx. Eddie R 1d ago

@mimi @bullivant
I've started using Mango Languages, and it seems promising. If you have a library card you might have free access with it, too!

Mimi (He/him)1d ago

@silvermoon82 I have too. I like how it tells you both the literal meaning of a phrase as well as what it means in common usage.

Even with the basic lessons, I feel like I'm learning more than with DuoLingo.

iamBullivant 1d ago

@silvermoon82 @mimi Thanks Eddie.

Johannes Hartig 3d ago

@bullivant Yeah, that really does it, #DuoLingo

Stoneface Vimes 3d ago

@bullivant clearly wants a whole underclass of mere drones. Incapable of independent thought. Just machines. Brave New World.

Graeme 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿3d ago

@bullivant Total fuckwit. Everyone should bin that app!

modris 3d ago

@bullivant Duolingo is not a better teacher than humans. Its only advantages are that it allows you to engage with the language at a time and place of your choosing and it is very effective at lower levels in particular.

@modris But other tools can do that: Anki, for example.

europlus

3d ago

@bullivant @billgoats what a grub.

contrasocial 3d ago

I'm so sick of tech bro mentality directing our society. The completely unearned smug self-satisfaction makes me want to roll them into the ocean in a garbage can.

狐ヴィクシー 3d ago

@bullivant He might have a point, but his attitude is sickening.

@KitsuneVixi Yes.

@bullivant Such immense dipshittery. Strip him, pillory him and have him walk through the streets so he may endure humiliation.

Steph Roccia (Sinjoro)3d ago

Silly sod - teachers are not there for child care or teaching, they are there for their own social life and love affairs - and they won't get that from AI... 🤣 😂 🤣

@steverocky 😂

Toni Aittoniemi 3d ago

@bullivant Never listen to what leaders say, watch what they do. Because all they say is justification for what they want to do.

Cee75 3d ago

He has the look of a man who escaped a mid 2010s marketing photoshoot and then went feral (possibly in a chic coffee roaster somewhere in Seattle that no-one you know has heard of).

@cee75 😂

L. B. Heuschkel 3d ago

@bullivant I'm done. Deleting the app now.

@lbheuschkel 👏

'better' = 'no need to directly hire / exploit workers, we outsource the exploitation to AI'

Glen, waiting for the pre-poll 3d ago

@bullivant I read that as a marketing statement for Duolingo investors. It's saying that this isn't an app with an addressable market of people learning a language. Rather it's "AI" with the purpose of replacing teachers with lower paid workers and the addressable market is primary and secondary education world-wide.

It's long been a play of the tech bros to make the addressable market near-infinite. That makes the VC firm's spreadsheets look very rosy. Musk in particular is good at this: the addressable market isn't luxury car buyers, but all of transport because those cars will be autonomous and will be able to be leased as taxis when unneeded by their owners; we're not just building rockets, with all that downside risk, we're going to own a whole planet!

EaterOfSnacks 3d ago

@bullivant Even if what he said was true (and it isn't), his product is still shite.

@bullivant As a school teacher myself, he's not exactly wrong.

@ben @bullivant
@KitsuneVixi

Derrial Book 3d ago

Sometimes I want to say more than this space allows. Hence:
https://derrialbook.bearblog.dev/duolingo-ceo-said-something-may-2025/

Duolingo CEO said something (May 2025).

This is a response to https://mastodon.ie/@bullivant/114544687485809851 Here we go again. We are back at the question "Is it OK to consume content of a...

Derrial Book says

@DerrialBook @bullivant @KitsuneVixi I agree with you that a lot needs to be discussed about the topic in depth and with nuance. I'd also like to say that my knowledge about language encompasses more than "some things" lol but indeed there are some things. I'm a humble enough teacher to be open to the idea that maybe a computer could teach a classroom full of kids more effectively than me. Perhaps not even specifically AI but software in general can be of use to teachers. I also think it would be ideal for a human teacher to be involved guiding, supervising, and supporting the little humans. I'm also familiar with how technology in the classroom isn't a magic bullet for solving education. I grew up part of a generation where just having computers in the school/classroom really didn't improve our education. Would you mind sharing what you teach? I teach English (ESL) to high school students.

@ben @DerrialBook @KitsuneVixi Yes. But this is not the point he is making. He thinks that your 'sole' role should be as a childminder so the children's parents can go to work. I had the misfortune to use his shitty software for two years and I very much doubt that school children would learn much from it. But, hey, "Is I talk 'AI' my share price will go up and I'll get richer."

@bullivant @DerrialBook @KitsuneVixi for sure whatever way software gets integrated with the classroom it should definitely not be whatever Duolingo is. Duolingo's purpose is just to keep you in the app so Duolingo can make more money

https://derrialbook.bearblog.dev/duolingo-ceo-said-something-part-2/

Derrial Book 3d ago

@ben @bullivant

Just like you I teach ESL to (mostly) secondary and high school students.

Some more thought based on discussion:

Duolingo CEO said something, part 2

Random thoughts based on continuous discussion: I have just read the article. Apparently, it is someone's recollection of a podcast. I am not engaged en...

Derrial Book says

@DerrialBook @ben @KitsuneVixi I hear you Derrial. We all make our choices based on our experiences and needs.

The Irish language learning community, of which i am part, is very down on the Duolingo Irish course because it is genuinely awful. Made worse by the substitution of good Irish speakers with AI crap, for 'reasons'. Those reasons being to drive up the share price - never mind the customer experience. Cory Doctorow calls it 'enshittification'.

Passwordsarehard4 3d ago

@ben @bullivant would you be able to maintain control of your classroom over camera? Now imagine what’s going to happen after 15 years of no human contact. You are the primary positive influence to many of those children and without you they are lost.

@passwordsarehard4 @bullivant Definitely not over camera. A physical presence is vital, in my opinion. I'm sure everyone would agree on that; school isn't just to teach kids facts but for them to have social interaction as well.

Passwordsarehard4 3d ago

@ben @bullivant the problem I see is for an AI to effectively teach it will need to segregate. Each student would need to learn independently for it to work, so no interaction. They couldn’t control groups remotely so AI can’t allow children to gather, no interaction there either. The parents are working full time so they have limited input and smaller families ( due to costs mainly) mean no siblings either. It’ll be worse than feral.

@ben Not sure why you are talking down your own profession.

@bullivant experience 😉

Arbres 3d ago

@bullivant This guy is a perfect example of why I think millennials are pure evil.

There's something wrong with them. Extremist. Cruel. Really heartless.

@arbres Bit harsh Arbres.

Arbres 2d ago

@bullivant Not really. Take a look around.
Millennials make "jokes" about people dying from covid so they can buy their houses. They are THE worst ageist bigots. They are the audience of murder documentaries. Columbine and movie theater mass murders perpetrated by millennials. Zuckerberg. Facebook. Snowden. The resurgence of nazis and white supremacists. They voted for Trump. Or not at all. They created a purist movement. Anti vaxx. Flat Earth anti-science.
Millennials.

Thomas Dugaro 3d ago

Once you recognise the pattern, you see it everywhere. Computerised thinking is penetrating every last corner of our humanity.
I'm an IT person, but it's screaming louder and louder inside me: I'm human. I think and act like a human being. I use my senses, love my shortcomings and contradictions. I am not a computer. Fuck off, Tech Bros

@dugartogo I vert much agree, Thomas. I've been coding for decades but this AI slop is going way, way too far.