Human triumphs over IBM’S AI debater
NEWYORK: International Business Machines Corp. fell short in its latest attempt to prove machines can triumph over man. But it came close.
The tech giant’s six-yearold artificial intelligence (AI) debating system, affectionately dubbed “Miss Debater,” went head-to-head with one of the world’s most decorated practitioners on Monday. After a 25-minute rapid-fire exchange about pre-school subsidies the audience handed the victory to 31-year-old Harish Natarajan.
The unorthodox contest marked the latest highly mar- keted man-versus-machine challenge.
In 1996, IBM created a computer system that beat a chess grandmaster for the first time.
In 2011, its Watson supercomputer defeated two recordwinning Jeopardy! contestants. And Alphabet Inc.’s Alphago famously proved AI can master the ancient and intricate game of Go.
But debating—which requires creativity and emotive elocution—has proven more elusive. IBM’S machine—known formally as Project Debater—kicked off Monday’s match-up with a cheeky greeting.
“I have heard you hold the world record in debate competition wins against humans, but I suspect you have never debated a machine. Welcome to the future.”
The event unfolded in front of hundreds of journalists, tech industry insiders and software engineers at IBM’S Think conference in downtown San Francisco.