Resident Evil names "AI-first" affront to humanity Duolingo bird its newest biological weapon, making it canon that Leon Kennedy has only learned Spanish by force

Duo, a mutated green owl and the mascot for language-learning platform Duolingo, had a reputation for being a maladjusted psycho online – until Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn declared earlier this summer that the company was "going to be AI-first" and sucked the fun from it. But there are few video games better suited to rotten corporate horror than Resident Evil, so it seems developer Capcom has (jokingly) given Duo a second chance at life by employing him as a biological weapon.

An Automaton spot and translation tells us the official Resident Evil brand account on Twitter recently posted an image of an abnormally muscular Duo edited into the Resident Evil remake, declaring him "Our new biological weapon. Go. Spread language learning to the world."

The Japanese Duolingo account responded with an image of buff Duo in the Resident Evil 2 remake, wearing villain Mr. X's infected fedora atop its unusually large head. He looms behind a sullen Leon Kennedy, whom he asks, according to Automaton's translation, "Leon, you haven't done today's lesson, right?"

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Capcom appears to confirm Leon's delinquency with an image of Leon slowly trudging his way through a Spanish lesson on his iPhone – ideally, it will help him communicate with the decaying villagers in Resident Evil 4.

But Duo is not appeased by Leon's effort. In response, he stands in front of the Raccoon City police station (how does he know where Leon works?) and vows to chase Leon "anywhere until everyone can play Resident Evil in English."

That's a cute joke, Duo. Now, show us your carbon footprint!

I've been playing Resident Evil games for 25 years – Resident Evil Requiem doesn't need Leon Kennedy.