Duolingo deletes all its TikTok videos after AI backlash—and then returns with a strange message

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.
- 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!
- They’re desperate to bring back slavery.
  
  Slavery never went away, they just added extra steps.
- 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.
  
  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.
- You shouldn't have subscribed in the first place.

just marketing I assume. duo has always been a weird marketer
- Their idea of marketing is to literally threaten people. And it works.
- considering they said theyre gonna replace all their employees with ai, i wouldnt be surprised if this is the marketing departments' last backlash.
- It doesn't matter if its good news, bad news, strange news, weird news ... its news and they're all talking about you
- “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.”

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.

https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo/video/7506578962697456939?lang=en
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.
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.
  
  Or babel. Anything but Duolingo at this point seems like the best bet
- Wtf did i just watch?

Fucking click bait title
- Save us a click - cliffnotes?
  
  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."
  
  This weird ass TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo/video/7506578962697456939?lang=en
  
  A weird, kinda relevant but actually not tik tok video. Duolingo’s policies haven’t changed, so I don’t care what they post.

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.

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.

Is Elon consulting for them?

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.

That reminds me, I should start practicing German on Babbel (not sponsored, but open to sponsorships :P ) https://www.babbel.com/mobile
- Is babbel free software?
  
  Doing a quick check I see that it’s like $17 for a monthly plan. Yikes
  
  I don't think so, no :(

Going to take this opportunity to ask if anyone knows about a good alternative?
- I've downloaded, but haven't tried it yet, but hear good things about Mango Languages Learning.
  
  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.
- Pimsleur is waaaay better. Not as gamified tho.
- 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)
  
  I like to ask people for their opinions

And so the A.I. larp begins.
Just randos larping as AI mainframe or whatever.