IBM announced that it has developed a machine capable of debating issues and playing active roles in major conversations.
The machine drew from a library of “hundreds of millions” of documents – mostly newspaper articles and academic journals – to form its responses to a topic it was not prepared for beforehand at a recent exercise in San Francisco meant to test-run the machine, according to a BBC report.
During the exercise, IBM’s Project Debater spoke, listened and rebutted a human’s arguments in what was described as a groundbreaking display of artificial intelligence.
Those in attendance made clear their thoughts when voting on who did best, though the machine’s display was not flawless.
While the humans had better delivery, the group agreed, the machine offered greater substance in its arguments.
IBM said the machine’s performance at the exercise was a reflection of its goal: augmenting human beings to make decisions quickly and with more data than ever before.
