Project Debater
Project Debater is an IBM artifical intelligence project, designed to participate in a full live debate with expert human debaters.[1][2][3][4] It follows on from the Watson project which played Jeopardy!.[5]
Development
Project Debater was developed at IBM's lab in Haifa, Israel.[5] The project was proposed by Noam Slonim in 2011 as the IBM Research next Grand Challenge, following Deep Blue and the victory of Watson in Jeopardy![6][7] It was exposed for the first time in a closed media event at June 18, 2018, in San Francisco, under the leadership of Ranit Aharonov and Slonim, both from the IBM Research lab in Haifa, Israel.[8] The AI technology debated two human debaters, Noa Ovadia, who was the 2016 Israeli debate champion and Dan Zafrir. The two debated on the topics "We should subsidize space exploration"[9] and "Should we increase the use of telemedicine."[10]
To develop Project Debater, the IBM Research team had to endow the system[11] with three AI capabilities:
- Data-driven speech writing and delivery: Project Debater is the first demonstration of a computer that can digest massive corpora,[12] and given a short description of a controversial topic, write a well-structured speech, and deliver it with clarity and purpose, while even incorporating humor where appropriate.
- Listening comprehension: the ability to identify the key concepts and claims hidden within long continuous spoken language.
- Modeling human dilemmas: modeling the world of human controversy and dilemmas in a unique knowledge representation, enabling the system to suggest principled arguments as needed.
A demonstration of Project Debater also aired on the Discovery Channel in June 2018 debating the question of whether sports gambling should be legalized.[13]
References
- ↑ Solon, Olivia (2018-06-19). "Man 1, machine 1: landmark debate between AI and humans ends in draw". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
- ↑ "IBM's Debating AI Is Here to Convince You That You're Wrong". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
- ↑ "The computer taking on humans in debate". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
- ↑ Lee, Dave (2018-06-19). "IBM's machine argues with humans". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
- 1 2 "IBM's got a computer that'll take on your debate team and maybe win. It's a new frontier for AI". CNET. 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
- ↑ "What it's like to watch an IBM AI successfully debate humans". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
- ↑ "IBM Unveils System That 'Debates' With Humans". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
- ↑ McCracken, Harry (20 June 2018). "Meet the AI that IBM Research is teaching to debate human beings". Fast Company. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- ↑ "IBM's Project Debater is an AI that's ready to argue". Engadget. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
- ↑ "IBM shows off an artificial intelligence that can debate a human – and do pretty well". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
- ↑ "AI Learns the Art of Debate with IBM Project Debater". www.ibm.com. 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
- ↑ "On the Retrieval of Wikipedia Articles Containing Claims on Controversial Topics".
- ↑ Discovery Channel. Progress in AI Research. June 2018. .