This is a YouTube video titled "Is Duolingo doomed with AI translation" containing a monologue or single-speaker discussion recorded in November 2024. The speaker argues against the idea that language learning platforms like Duolingo are obsolete due to AI translation tools, explaining why language learning remains necessary despite technological advances.
I do also believe when people say duolingo is doomed, they're making this assumption that no one will need to learn languages. I think that is a very unrealistic assumption and here's why. Real time translation tools have been around for a long time. That has not reduced the need to learn languages. This is very similar to having calculators does not reduce the need to learn math. And with real time translation, even if you can do the most instant, the best translation, a lot of languages you need to complete a full sentence, receive that sentence to be translated back to a different language. Because order of where the verb is and how it's structured might need to be reversed for the other language. I'm saying there's still the challenge that you can't go get a knowledge job with a simultaneous translation service because would you want to work with someone that has 15 second lag in every interaction? The other challenge is there's many other reasons to learn a language other than just be transactional with other humans, connect with their heritage.