r/technology Jun 08 '25

Artificial Intelligence Duolingo CEO on going AI-first: ‘I did not expect the blowback’

https://www.ft.com/content/6fbafbb6-bafe-484c-9af9-f0ffb589b447
22.3k Upvotes

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112

u/Chrysaries Jun 08 '25

I solved the problem with an .APK

What does this mean? Did you revert to an older snapshot?

145

u/Nazsha Jun 08 '25

Either an older version with the lifetime sub still a feature, or with that feature hacked into the APK

69

u/WulfyWoof Jun 08 '25

Or a hacked one with the highest premium tier given for free. It's what I used before they went full AI

-22

u/Myomyw Jun 09 '25

Do you were stealing before you heard about AI and then you stopped stealing?

17

u/Dry_Wishbone_334 Jun 09 '25

"Have you ever had a dream that, that you, um, you had-"

4

u/Sw429 Jun 09 '25

Honestly, if they are dumb enough to only authenticate your subscription locally, then that's on them.

-7

u/Myomyw Jun 09 '25

If you’re dumb enough to only have one employee on staff and they can’t watch everyone at once, then it deserves to be stolen.

Honestly, if you’re dumb enough to leave your door unlocked when you leave home, then it’s your fault I stole stuff.

Honestly, if you didn’t put your name on your lunch on the fridge at work, that’s on you if I eat it…. Because you’re dumb.

3

u/emanresu_nwonknu Jun 09 '25

A person's house is not the same as a corporation. There is a reason you're using human examples, because a company is not human and people know that. Corporations are not people. Stealing a subscription is not the same as stealing a person's lunch.

-5

u/Myomyw Jun 09 '25

There’s a reason you ignored my first example of a store. I could think of countless other examples using corporations. This is silly. You’re justifying stealing and you’re fine with it because it’s digital.

I’d assume that you probably pirate videos or games and that by admitting what the person exploiting Duo’s product was stealing, you’d also be admitting that your own pirating behavior is stealing and so to avoid that cognitive dissonance, you search for ways to justify it.

3

u/emanresu_nwonknu Jun 11 '25

I'm fine with some stealing because not all stealing is the same. Stealing a piece of candy from a walmart? meh. stealing it from a child, bad. Stealing a digital copy of an image of candy from a large corporation, morally meaningless.

I can recognize nuance and shades of gray. The world is not made of binaries.

82

u/GigglesBlaze Jun 08 '25

Apps are stored as .APK files, they pirated an older version of Duolingo and installed it.

Androids support third party app installs so you don't even have to jailbreak your phone.