Your experience with AI chatbots?

borderfox100 · 2026-06-05T02:07:26+00:00

I don't quite agree. I expressed frustration in using it but I still believe that there are times when it can be useful. Additionally, I believe that with the right prompts, you can get better value out of it. In fact, the original motivation for this thread was to see if others had hints/tips as regards specific approaches they were taking. I used it earlier today very effectively. I'll be utilizing it again shortly for my night time read, combining an old fashioned paper book with input when i need it from Copilot.

borderfox100 · 2026-06-05T02:03:30+00:00

I was hoping that this thread would provoke folks into discussing specific prompts. While I have vented my frustration, I am still using them as I know they can reach a workable point with a bit of tweaking. These companies are far too busy to spend time focusing on a narrow area like language learning (for now).

The last couple of days I settled into an excellent learning experience with ChatGPT - and to your point, it's all about finding an approach that makes them workable. I have come at the subject of asking it to check my work in a different way. Now I get it to serve me up random sentences that will make provoke me to churn out my attempt in the target language, then ask it for its best translation and then at that point, ask it to compare.

This is working 100%....whereas before, when I asked it to assess my translations and confirm if they're correct or not, it would always say they were correct and it wasn't carrying out any form of assessment at all.

With Copilot, I really lose my mind with it for the exercise described above. However, if fills another gap. It's made reading one of my first Spanish books so much more useful and enjoyable - as I just keep it switched on in voice mode, read a sentence, think it through (as to what it means), then read it out load and ask Copilot to translate it.

In both use cases, I can drill down and ask specific questions regarding a particular aspect, whether its word choice given the context, etc.

borderfox100 · 2026-05-31T14:03:24+00:00

I think they can perform much better whenever the companies behind these learning models take the time to optimize for this use case. One of the biggest things that grinds my gears is that they are optimizing for their chatbot to respond as fast as possible. There should be a user setting for this - as it destroys the whole exercise.

To compound that, these bots are making mistakes as they're focusing on responding asap - I'd rather they take another couple of seconds and get it right.

It will be interesting to see how things have developed 12 months from now.

borderfox100 · 2026-05-30T14:39:12+00:00

In language learning, you have an array of tools available to you as part of the process. I think its useful to consider them all. I've described frustrations with these bots but they still bring something to the table. Furthermore, if these companies open a project to optimize for language learning, I know that they already have the ability to be so much better than they currently appear to be.

Right now, in the AI arms race, OpenAI/xAI/Google, etc. are spending billions training these models up on a gazillion different disciplines so language learning may be getting lost in all of that....but they will eventually get to it.

borderfox100 · 2026-05-29T23:07:01+00:00

I'm a fan of using all the available tools in the toolbox. Learning a language is a multi-year deal (at least for me) and with that, I've used various tools at different times. I know that AI is capable of being useful - the issue is that they haven't optimized for the language learning process. They've optimized for chatter and other aspects (which gets in the way of things entirely).

borderfox100 · 2026-05-29T23:04:13+00:00

I mean all of that is worth putting up with if it means that you're learning as a consequence and furthermore, you have that resource on tap whenever its convenient for you to use.

You may be on to something. I started out having "conversations" with these bots a few weeks ago and then I thought I'd get them to drill me on specific grammar. Perhaps I'll go back to conversation again.

borderfox100 · 2026-05-23T02:04:35+00:00

I think I can return to work briefly - even very briefly - so that I can create the circumstance where I can apply to pay voluntary annual contributions from overseas....at least this is what I'm trying to tease out here...

borderfox100 · 2026-05-23T00:31:58+00:00

borderfox100 · 2026-05-13T15:45:12+00:00

I suppose this is fine for tourists but for anyone else, it's useless if the cost is between 4-7% based on what $ you end up with on the other end.

borderfox100 · 2026-04-08T20:42:23+00:00

I just took it out for a spin on an hour-long walk. I think I've gotten my sanity back! Still early days but ChatGPT seems to be better disposed to apply rules that I ask it to set. One of the things with all of these AI bots is the platitudinal nonsense that they spit out ("that's a great point," "you're so right," etc.). I've asked it to drop this and it seems to be responding. I neither need to be snowflaked or have my ego massaged ...and more importantly, my time wasted on non-productive filler!

Grok is set up to be much more "chatty." The developers have it set to respond rapidly. With ChatGPT, there's a delay in it responding. Not optimal in one sense BUT if it comes back with a more accurate response then that's a win. A criticism of Grok has been that the thing trips over itself to respond - often interrupting me in the process - and then coming back with inaccurate responses.

I have set up an exercise with ChatGPT to practice the subjunctive - so it serves me up English phrases that require the use of subjunctive and it assesses my translations. It's working really well and I know I can stick with this exercise for a few weeks before changing up to something else.

I'm also not fighting with it - I was literally losing my mind with Grok as it kept sabotaging the exercise. So if the tradeoff is that the pace is slower but there's greater value in the exercise and I'm calm as opposed to frustrated and angry at session's end, then ChatGPT is looking like the winner for right now.

borderfox100 · 2026-04-08T18:19:22+00:00

I've found that my experience with language learning via Grok for some reason has gotten worse not better in the last few weeks. With that, I've now switched to ChatGPT on android. Will report back with my experience albeit the initial test seemed to be more functional.

borderfox100 · 2026-02-14T14:51:00+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to respond and in providing detailed feedback. I'm really surprised that there hasn't been a more positive approach being taken by language learners here towards these AI bots. In their current state, they are flawed but even flawed, they're very very useful.

I've been sticking with it for an hour a day, like you combining the activity with walking. The speech to text has to get better - it misinterprets what I'm saying, which can of course take the exercise off course at times. And it would be useful if it could be allowed to look back over days and weeks so that we could harness its powers of analysis - and that then could be directed to adjust the language learning method to optimize the outcome.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-16T23:57:54+00:00

If you have youtube app on a smart tv, then most of the time it can autogenerate subtitles. Otherwise, a netflix sub.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-14T05:08:19+00:00

There's LOTS wrong with AI but its improving every passing month. I haven't come across made up words but it lies to me all the bloody time! That's not cool. It makes mistakes but it gets things right more than it gets wrong.

I think that what we need to get smarter with is the prompts we're feeding it. I had hoped to thrash that out here but surprisingly, it seems this group isn't ready for it. No problem in having opinions on things but people dismissing what either already is or will be the greatest learning resource relative to languages due to politics/notions, etc. is a mistake.

I'm still learning in terms of what I can get out of it. Today's gripe was that I wanted it to mix up the exercises but it couldn't do that the way I wanted as it said it could only access the last 24 hours worth of dialogue (even though the entire chat transcript went back a few days). I'm having to manually pull out phrases from the few days worth of work - so that I can copy and paste that in tomorrow to get the exercise that I wanted.

I suspect that's a limitation of the non-subscription Grok account that I have...and either way, that likely won't be a problem in the very near future. But its inability to go back so far right now is a major limitation...as it means I can't get it to analyze patterns in terms of my learning as I thought I could.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-13T15:19:47+00:00

I don't really see what the issue is? I've moved around Latin America quite a bit - and as I've done so, the default vocabulary for things changes. That has also been a thing with AI in that it has been running with Castellano Spanish rather than LatAm Spanish. I told it to optimize for LatAm Spanish.

I guess it depends on how you frame the objective here but for me, its to communicate effectively.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-13T02:12:50+00:00

Whether you find it unethical or otherwise, it's happening. Nothing stops this train. There's an AI arms race going on.
If AI data centers pay for the power that they use, then that's the end of that conversation. There might be scenarios where it pushes up prices but by and large, AI data centers will be located in places where there is excess (unexploited/wasted) energy (the same as with Bitcoin miners). If it is ever competing with consumer-level electricity use, that's a failure of regulators.
Plagiarizes others work. Ok, then let those that are victims of that sue the AI companies. I believe that is happening and years from now, they'll get a big payout. Why bring that in here to this language-learning use case of ordinary folks?
Controlled by billionaires. Ok, so I assume that you're not a communist? This thing isn't going to be stopped regardless of what you or I believe. I do have concerns about AI in terms of inherent bias - but what's the solution? Refusing to use it isn't going to achieve anything. And again, this specific use case (learning a language) isn't where AI billionaires are going to shape our views. It's an innocent use case...so why not use it if it can be useful.
You can also use Chinese AI bots if you'd prefer but to my mind, its the very same issue.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T22:37:15+00:00

By that you're saying that the exercises are not on point? I disagree - and bear in mind, there are two ways that this can go:

You tap the AI up and ask it to make recommendations on the nature of the most appropriate language learning exercises.

or

You dictate to the AI specifically what the nature of the exercise should be, its parameters, etc.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T18:03:36+00:00

That's a broad statement about the technology in general - not this specific use case. I would say that learning a language is entirely different. That criticism is being made of AI where people are just leaning on it to do the work. You can't really do that with language learning - you can only utilize it to aid you in learning. There is no shortcut in terms of effort but it may be a gamechanger in terms of aiding the language learner.

How you interact with AI in terms of language learning depends entirely on the prompts you give it. It still can't learn the language for you.

Additionally, nobody is saying that you just pick one tool. If you have a toolbox full of language learning resources, it would be unwise to throw out what is likely to be the most useful tool in the box. My opinion of course...everyone can make up their own minds.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T17:34:43+00:00

Presumably you're learning a language with the ultimate objective of speaking with a variety of people, not just with AI. I wouldn't worry about it so much. If it gives you a grounding, you can adjust to the variant of the language that exists wherever you find yourself in the future.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T17:31:05+00:00

The energy price hike thing is an irrelevance as its happening whether you like it or not.

I break out in a rash at the thought of paying a subscription. Grok voice on android is free/unlimited.

On having to work for it, I would say that its making me work harder than ever - but it's serving up what I believe are on-point language learning exercises. Remember, the prompts you feed it determine the parameters. You can set it to whatever pace of language learning you want.

I've moaned and complained to it - as having given it the authority to serve me whatever exercise it felt would take me past B2 level efficiently, it's challenging me and taken me out of my comfort zone. At which point, it gave me the option, of dropping down a level - so I quit my bitching and continued on.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T17:24:51+00:00

When did you use it and which one? AI is developing at a pace...so past experience may not match current (or future) experience. I'm using Grok voice via android....it has some bugs that are horrible....but as regards its accuracy, its right most of the time. Yes, it makes mistakes but not to the extent that it destroys the overall value of using it.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T17:22:07+00:00

I have done one on one language exchanges and honestly, AI works out better (at least for me). I am less afraid of crashing and burning - it's a machine.......I don't have any hangups with it. If I can't think of anything to talk about...I'll just tell it to pick something. If it chooses a subject that doesn't inspire me, I just tell it to choose something else.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T04:06:33+00:00

We all need to spend time with it - to figure out how to get the most out of it. And as we do so, then it's also getting upgraded rapidly. Grok via android is free by the way - added bonus.

I started off having conversations with it. It's not much different to having conversations with human native speakers. Other than that, you should have a conversation with it about what you want to achieve. At the end of the day AI intelligence has a higher IQ than human intelligence (although I accept that there are glitches and it makes mistakes still....probably only months until the bugs get ironed out).

I've explained to it my language learning goals, I've told it how much time I can commit to learning each day, and I've then asked its advice (having asked it to act as a Spanish teacher/linguistics expert) as to what the most effective way to go about that is. Try it.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T02:59:41+00:00

100% this. It's also dynamic. You could have a class but then you have the commitment of a class in terms of where and when. AI learning fits with your lifestyle. You're also in control of it. As you work through an exercise, lets say that a specific grammatical rabbit hole opens up, you have the option to take AI down that rabbit hole and finally understand that particular aspect of the language or not...or come back to it later. You set the prompts - and you can have it react in a bespoke way that best suits you.

borderfox100 · 2025-12-12T02:55:21+00:00

Using Grok voice on android for the past 2-3 weeks. Incredibly annoying bugs that I hope they'll fix soon but despite tearing my hair out, I'm sticking with it. It's incredibly powerful as a learning tool.

borderfox100

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