IBM pitted a computer against two human debaters in the first public demonstration of artificial intelligence technology it's been working on for more than five years.
IBM on Monday (Jun 18) gave reporters in San Francisco a demonstration of Project Debater. Think Deep Blue, but instead of playing chess, this system debates.
Computer scientists have labored for six years to enable an unprecedented system that culls millions of documents of information, listens and comprehends and then forms arguments based on that data. Debater even made jokes.
Debater fared well, winning one of the two debates against humans. Warts were visible, however. At times, Debater cited barely relevant data.
This is all part of IBM's pursuit to create computers that master human speech.
However, there are no immediate plans to turn Project Debater into a commercial product.
- Source: News agencies
