You can add Duolingo to the growing list of companies jumping on the synthetic AI craze. On Wednesday, the company announced , a new, more expensive subscription tier that comes with access to a pair of GPT-4 features. The first of them, “Explain my answer,” lets you ask Duo, a chatbot named after the company’s owl mascot, to explain why your answer to a the question is true or false, with the option to ask for further clarification if you need more help.
The second feature, Role Playing, allows you to practice skills learned through Duolingo in a number of situations. For example, one session asks you to order food and drinks at a cafe in Paris. Duolingo says no two conversations will be exactly the same, even if you rehearse a situation multiple times, and users can earn experience points by completing practice sessions.
Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn said: “Most people don’t have access to a human private tutor, but I believe AI will allow us to eventually replicate the experience of a tutor. being human and extending that experience to everyone in the world.” . “I am excited to share these incredible new features with the millions of people learning Duolingo.”
Duolingo has been working on Duolingo Max since 2022, as part of a partnership that has seen OpenAI grant the company access to their new GPT-4 template earlier. . Thankfully, Duolingo is aware enough to acknowledge GPT-4’s language skills . “We have spent many months working closely with OpenAI to test and train this technology and will continue to do so until it is virtually bug free,” the company noted, adding. users can report incorrect AI responses by long-pressing a message. Users can also rate the Explain My Answer session by giving a like or dislike emoji after they complete a session.
Starting today, Duolingo Max is available to English-speaking iOS users learning Spanish and French. In the US, the service will cost $30 per month or $168 per year. It comes with all the features that are part of Duolingo’s existing Super subscription, including unlimited hearts and no ads.
