Having Meaningful Arguments with AI

While the computer has been called a great many useful adjectives, being loquacious is not one of them. As yet. In the IBM office in San Francisco, Noa Ovadia is thinking that this may soon change. The Israeli is a college senior who has won debate championships. She squared off with the IBM Debater, a new Artificial Intelligence robot that is able to hold conversations with human beings.

Noa and the IBM Debater argued for and against the government subsidiaries for space exploration. She argued against the topic while the computer argued for it. It also individually responded to each of Noa’s human opinions in it’s lengthy rebuttal that was delivered in a monotone. The machine delivered three brief speeches in it’s digital voice and came up with solid arguments.

The IBM Debater has been under development for six years. The device is able to argue sensibly over a hundred different topics currently. It is part of an effort being made to build technology which can interact with human beings in an easier manner. These “Chat bots” are only likely to grow in the future in terms of complexity and  obeying more than simple commands as further science projects continue to develop them.