Google Launches AI-Powered Duolingo Competitor
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This week, Google is launching two new AI-powered features for Google Translate , and they may not be good news for Duolingo. The app now generates practice lessons that you can listen to or speak along with. These lessons are generated by AI and, according to Google, “intelligently adapt to your level of knowledge.” It’s a follow-up to another AI experiment Google launched in April called Language Lessons , though the implementation in Google Translate appears to be a little more straightforward.
The feature is rolling out this week in beta on iOS and Android. It doesn’t appear to have shown up in my Translate app yet, but here’s how Google says it will work: Google Translate will first ask you how proficient you are in the current language: “Basic,” which means you know a few words and phrases; “Intermediate,” which means you can express your opinions and communicate about everyday topics; and “Advanced,” which means you can discuss a variety of topics in depth. (There will also be a “Beginner Only” option, but it’s not available yet.)
Once you’ve made your choice, you can share your motivation for learning the language – either by writing something yourself or choosing something from the app. (You can skip this if you want, although I imagine it helps the AI focus on lessons tailored to your learning goals.) From here, the app generates tasks for you to practice. For example, it might present a scenario where you practice asking about different meal times. Once you’ve selected that scenario, you then choose whether you want to practice listening or speaking. For listening practice, you might be shown a short clip of someone speaking in the language you’re learning, and then have to choose words from a list of words you know. For speaking practice, you might say phrases that appear on the screen.
It’s simple, but it can be effective. Google says it worked with “learning experts” to develop these tools, which are based on the latest research on language acquisition. If I can learn to speak and understand Portuguese better for free, that sounds great, but only time will tell if it compares to dedicated language-learning apps like Duolingo.
Live Conversation Updates
Another new feature is an update to the existing “live chat” feature. The idea is to turn on live chat and start chatting with your interlocutor as usual. The app then translates your words and shows the translation to your interlocutor.
However, the new update appears to expand the feature’s capabilities. The app will now translate your speech in real time, so the person you’re talking to can read the translation as you speak. If they need to hear the full translation, the app will read it out loud after you’ve finished speaking. Google says the feature works for live conversations in more than 70 languages, including Arabic, French, Hindi, Korean, Spanish, and Tamil, and is available in Google Translate for users in the US, India, and Mexico.
You can see an example of this new interface in action in this video . When I tried it out, the app seemed to translate pretty quickly, which I think makes communication a lot easier: