It was announced on Feb 11th 2019 and it was invented by John Donvan.
IBM Debater is part of project called Project Debater.It is first AI system which debate with humans on complex topics.
A Live Conference was conducted on debate in San Francisco California between A Grand finalist in the 2016 World Debating championship by Harish Natarajan and on the other side IBM Live Debater.A tough competition held between both but at last Human Wins.Now, It is in developing stage, not fully ready,they are Updating their AI Programming for more accurate results.
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Let me tell how Actually what had happened in the conference
Project Debater made an opening argument that supported the resolution, making use of facts on the upsides of subsidizing preschool, citing studies and quoting historical figures. Her view was grounded in the premise that subsidizing preschool isn’t just a matter of finance — it’s a moral and political imperative to support the most vulnerable members of society. She cited research showing that investment in preschool results in more successful lives, including better income and health as well as a decreased likelihood to be involved in crime.
The human debater, Harish Natarajan — who holds the record for most competition victories — opposed the resolution, arguing that a preschool subsidy doesn’t effectively address the root causes of poverty and is simply “a politically motivated giveaway” to the middle class. While acknowledging that poverty is a terrible condition that must be addressed by government and societal resources, he said other programs were more effective. A subsidy, he argued, would simply be a giveaway to people who likely already have their children enrolled in preschool.
Both sides had only 15 minutes to prepare for the debate, affording neither the chance to train on the topic. In other words, an AI system engaged with an expert human debater, listened to his argument and responded convincingly with its own, unscripted reasoning to persuade the audience to consider its position on a controversial topic. This represents another important step in the long-term journey to teach AI to master human language.
Both Project Debater and Natarajan were able to offer valuable and interesting discussions, but differed in their approach and style. The AI system pulled in data that supported its view, while Natarajan used his significant skills to reframe the debate about where government dollars could be best used to ensure societal equality.
The winner of the event was determined by the debater’s ability to convince the audience of the persuasiveness of the arguments. Results were tabulated via a real-time online poll. Before the debate, 79 percent of the audience agreed that preschools should be subsidized, while 13 percent disagreed (eight percent were undecided). After the debate, 62 percent of poll participants agreed that preschools should be subsidized, while 30 percent disagreed, meaning Natarajan was declared the winner. Interestingly, 58 percent said that Project Debater better enriched their knowledge about the topic at hand, compared to Harish’s 20 percent.
Moderating the evening’s debate was John Donvan, four-time Emmy Award winner and host of the Intelligence Squared U.S. debate series. Following the debate, Donovan engaged Natarajan and two of the primary researchers behind Project Debater, Dr. Ranit Aharonov and Dr. Noam Slonim, in an onstage discussion. All agreed it was a fascinating and historically significant evening. Aharanov explained that the potential of Project Debater lies in its ability to “understand both sides of a problem and present all the pros and cons so you have a wider view of the topic and then can make a better decision.”
Slonim later added, “Ultimately, what we saw was that the interaction of man and machine could be enriching for both. It’s not a question of one being better than the other, but about AI and humans working together.” In addition to clients, business partners, press, analysts and social influencers, students from local debate teams including Dougherty Valley and the Bay Area Urban Debate League attended the debate. Many students were excited by how well Project Debater performed. “I was really very impressed by how well the IBM machine could create responses based on the arguments that Harish presented,” said Rishi Balakrishnan, a student at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, CA. Project Debater’s first live public debate took place in June before a small, select group.
At Think, IBM endeavored to share the science and spectacle of a live debate with a large in-person audience, and thousands more watching via livestream. The goal of the debate, said IBM Research director Dario Gil, was not to discover who is right or which side won, but to “master the complex and rich world of human language.” On Monday night, they came one step closer.
Tomas Mandy
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