Special Release: Can AI Change Your Mind?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special episode of Intelligence Squared U.S., we partner with IBM for a historic debate that brings AI to the stage. IBM Project Debater is the first AI system designed to debate humans on complex topics using a combination of pioneering research developed by IBM researchers. In this debate, Project Debater faces world-class debater Harish Natarajan on the motion, "We Should Subsidize Preschool". Still curious about AI? Dive into more debates: Past Debate - Don’t Trust the Promise of AI: http://smarturl.it/ArtificialIntellMain Upcoming Debate - All Hail Driverless Cars: http://smarturl.it/DriverlessCar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, I'm John Don Van and in this episode of Intelligent Squared US we're doing
0:04.8	something a little bit different. Usually we put four people on a stage, two teams of
0:09.3	two, who argue out one sharply framed resolution. Our debaters are experts in their topics and
0:15.5	have spent years, if not decades, thinking and researching and writing about them. But
0:19.9	not this time. For this debate we have partnered with IBM to host a first of its kind debate
0:25.7	between a human and a machine. That's right, one of our debaters here is IBM's project debater,
0:32.4	the first artificial intelligence system designed to engage meaningfully with humans in debate.
0:38.4	This project started in 2012 in IBM's research lab in Haifa, Israel and now in San Francisco it's
0:44.5	becoming the first ever non-human intelligence-squared US debater. In this debate project debater takes
0:49.8	on a world-class human debater, Harish Natharajan. We didn't tell either debater the topic or the
0:56.7	emotion before the debate. They both had just a few minutes to prepare. Let's see how it works.
1:02.9	And now please welcome Director of IBM Research, Darian Piole.
1:08.8	This past June, a few blogs from where I'm standing right now, IBM unveiled project debater.
1:15.2	An AI system that is capable of engaging with humans in a life debate. It was widely reported at the
1:21.8	time that the system really held its own against two Israeli debate champions. But for us, it really
1:30.4	is not about winning or losing, but really about the ability to create AI that can master the
1:36.8	infinitely complex and rich world of human language. I like games. Language can really tell us more
1:44.8	about human thought and expression. And is this world that is most interesting to us at IBM
1:51.0	Research? We believe there is great potential in having artificial intelligence that can understand
1:57.2	us, the more transparent and explainable that we can make AI, the more we can trust it. And the more
2:03.6	we can trust it, the more we can rely on it to help us make better decisions. At IBM Research,
2:09.7	we have a long history of creating technology and capability that can amplify and complement
	...

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