One on one debate, known as Lincoln-Douglas debate, was my thing in high school. And this story is giving me nightmares.
Debating an AI infused computer wasn't even a thing back then. In fact computers for regular people weren't a thing, either. (No laughing, please...)
On Monday, IBM put an AI powered system up against an Israeli debate champion in a series of these Lincoln-Douglas debates.
We'll let USA Today take it from here:
"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."
And that was just the first debate. Wait until you hear how the second one went.