IBM shows off an artificial intelligence that can debate a human and change some minds

SAN FRANCISCO -- IBM computers famously won at Jeopardy! and beat world class chess masters. At a media gathering here Monday afternoon, a black, artificial intelligence-infused IBM computer with a screen for a face more than held its own debating seasoned human debaters. In one debate face-off, IBM's "Project Debater" AI computer made the case in favor of the government subsidizing space exploration against Israeli debate champion Noa Ovadia, who took the opposite position. Ovadia was judged the winner by the crowd of journalists in "delivering" the argument--the computer's attempts at humor didn't measure up to the personality of a human -- but IBM handily outscored Ovadia on the question of "knowledge enrichment." IBM's computer fared better in a second debate persuading the crowd that telemedicine is worth pursuing against another human debater, Dan Zafrir.