The imminent conquest of the world by the forces of Artificial Intelligence has been postponed for a while, thanks to a debating champion.
Harish Natarajan, a finalist at the World Debating Championships in 2016, faced off against Project Debater, an AI system, and defeated it. The six-year-old system, built by IBM, responds to its opponents by assembling logical arguments.
In a live debate held in San Francisco on Monday, Natarajan and Project Debater were given 15 minutes to prepare their arguments about the merits of subsidising pre-schools. IBM’s debater argued for the subsidies while Natarajan argued against them.
It was framed in the traditional debate structure, with time allotted for opening and closing statements and a four-minute rebuttal. The winner was decided by the audience.
Even though Project Debater presented eloquent arguments, complete with a snarky opening statement (above), Natarajan ultimately won over the audience.
Here is the entire debate.
Buy an annual Scroll Membership to support independent journalism and get special benefits.
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!