What it's like to watch an IBM AI successfully debate humans

At a small event in San Francisco last night, IBM hosted two debate club-style discussions between two humans and an AI called "Project Debater." The goal was for the AI to engage in a series of reasoned arguments according to some pretty standard rules of debate: no awareness of the debate topic ahead of time, no pre-canned responses. Each side gave a four-minute introductory speech, a four-minute rebuttal to the other's arguments, and a two-minute closing statement. Project Debater held its own. It looks like a huge leap beyond that other splashy demonstration we all remember from IBM, when Watson mopped the floor with its competition at Jeopardy.