Laying out her case logically, she peppered her talk with OECD and US Centers for Disease Control report statistics and even quoted former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Most impressive was Project Debater's ability to listen to Natarajan's arguments in real time, her display blinking away all the time, and counter them with a reasonable, fact-based rebuttal. She even managed some emotive flourishes at one point saying, "to be clear, my intention is not to leave a suitcase full of money for everyone to grab at will."

Last night's debate in San Francisco between Project Debater, an artificial intelligence engine based on Watson, and Harish Natarajan, the 2016 …