Duolingo’s new ChatGPT-powered tutor will help you practise your French

Duolingo is the latest company to jump on the AI bandwagon by introducing an AI tutor, powered by Open AI’s Chat GPT-4.

This week, the language learning company announced a new, more expensive subscription tier with Duolingo Max.

The new tier comes with two features: Role Play, an AI conversation partner and Explain my Answer, which breaks down the rules when you make a mistake.

With Role Pay, the app will essentially take the place of a human tutor, allowing users to practise their language skills in a number of scenarios.

For example, you can practise ordering food and drinks at a Parisian cafe with the app’s AI. Duolingo says no two conversations will be exactly the same, even when you rehearse a situation more than once.

‘Most people don’t have access to a one-on-one human tutor, but I believe AI will allow us to eventually recreate the experience of a human tutor and scale it to everyone in the world,’ said Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn.

The second feature, ‘Explain My Answer’ allows you to ask Duo, the company’s chatbot, why your answer to a question was right or wrong, with the option to ask for additional clarification if you need more help.

Duolingo Max uses generative AI to create the most advanced learning experience on Duolingo.

Just this week, OpenAI released its upgraded ChatGPT-4, with enhanced capabilities including using prompts that its predecessor ChatGPT-3.5 was unable to compute.

In September 2022, Duolingo and OpenAI began collaborating to build brand-new learning features using GPT-4.

‘This meant training the model for Duolingo’s special use case, ensuring the product had proper safety guardrails, double-checking the accuracy of its explanations, and tweaking the prompts used in Duolingo Max,’ said Duolingo in a statement.

‘Part of the reason we’re so excited to use GPT-4 for these features is that it’s the most accurate (and fastest) version of the technology available,’ said Duolingo.

‘We’ve spent months collaborating closely with OpenAI to test and train this technology, and will continue doing so until the mistakes are nearly nonexistent.’

Still, with AI tools still a work in progress and prone to mistakes or ‘hallucinations’, Duolingo claims that its AI-generated explanations will ‘constantly’ be reviewed for accuracy and tone.

Users can also report AI responses that don’t feel right by holding down an inaccurate message, selecting a reason for reporting, and the company will look into it.

For now, it supports only English speakers using the iOS app looking to learn either French or Spanish.

Duolingo Max is available to subscribers for £19.99 a month after a two-week free trial (£9.99 if you sign on for a year).

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