In a first, IBM's computer debater faces off against itself

The chamber hushed as the debate got underway at the Cambridge Union and the teams launched into their carefully crafted opening statements. The topic - whether artificial intelligence would do more harm than good - was something each side had a big stake in because both were using the technology to deliver their arguments. Cambridge University, home to the world's oldest debating society, was the setting Thursday night for a demonstration of what the future might hold. IBM's Project Debater, a robot that has already debated humans, was for the first time being pitted against itself, at least in the first round. Artificial intelligence "will not be able to make a decision that is the morally correct one, because morality is unique to humans," the computer system said in a synthetic and vaguely feminine voice.