IBM's Robot Debater Takes on Humans...and May Change Some Minds
*By: Britt Terrell*
IBM Research conducted the first live debate between a human and a machine this week, showing off the company's latest development in artificial intelligence.
Project Debater squared off against two experts in rhetoric Monday night, responding to and delivering its own arguments. The technology, which ingests information from newspaper articles and other sources to put together well-structured speech and deliver a response, was even able to convince some audience members to change their minds.
"This is a great tool for helping educate the public," said Arvind Krishna, SVP & Director of IBM Research. "They could ask it a question, and 'Debater' can then look through and say, 'Look, based on everything I've read, here is an informed opinion on what everybody's thinking and saying.'"
When it comes to using the machine to help humans formulate opinions, though, especially in an age when fake news has run rampant on certain sites, Debater's powers could raises some concerns. But Krishna pointed out that humans are subject to the same pitfalls.
"What the Debater will do is it won't stick only to the fake news, it will give other \[opinions\], so you really get a complete and comprehensive \[response\]."
Debater is not the first example of high-functioning A.I. to come out of IBM. The company's Watson technology showed off against Jeopardy! champions in 2011, and its 'Deep Blue' program famously bested chess champion Garry Kasparov back in 1997.
But there is still work to be done on the Debater software. And while Krishna dismissed criticisms that its voice was too robotic ー Google, after all, drew jabs for its [all-too-human-sounding Duplex](https://cheddar.com/videos/was-googles-duplex-demo-real) ー he acknowledged some room for improvement.
"How do you throw humor in, when do you throw humor in?" he asked. "Like when it makes a joke like, 'If I had blood, my blood would boil, but I don't really have blood.'"
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/ibms-newest-a-i-project).
Creator commerce platform LTK raised $300 million in a recent funding round, now valuing the company at $2 billion. LTK is the world's largest influencer marketing platform and is known for helping to pioneer the so-called 'creator economy.' The company helps content creators make money off of their social media posts by hosting them on one central marketplace. LTK says more than $3 million in products are bought each year on its website and app. Now, the company is looking to continue its growth. LTK co-founder and president Amber Venz Box joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Microsoft recently announced the standalone Teams Essentials as businesses continue to update their practices for the new norm of hybrid work life. Jared Spataro, corporate VP at Microsoft Modern Work, joined Cheddar to talk about solutions the tech giant has rolled out in order to help underserved small and medium-sized companies continue operations seamlessly. "We're excited about the opportunity to serve their needs better, and that, in particular, is focused on their meeting and communication needs," he said. "We start with Teams, which has been a wildly successful product for us up in the enterprise space, and now we have created a form of Teams that is particularly suited for small businesses."
No matter what you're in the market for this holiday season, there is one way that you can put some cash back in your pocket and stretch your gift budget a little bit further this year. With Lolli, for every gift you buy for someone else, you get the gift of free bitcoin back. CEO of Lolli, Alex Adelman, joins Cheddar News.
Iwao Fusillo, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, GM, joins Cheddar News to dispel myths and cut straight to the facts about GM's role in an all-electric future.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Elon Musk warned SpaceX employees in a leaked email that the company could be forced to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy if its raptor engine program fails. Musk then commented on the previous statement adding the detail that a recession could make such a bankruptcy possible.
Goldman Sachs is rolling out an Amazon Web Service for trading firms called GS Financial Cloud for Data with Amazon Web Services. The move comes as Wall Street looks to keep up with today's evolving tech.
Online ad-tech company Innovid made its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange. CEO and co-founders Zvika Netter joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to discuss factors that drove the company to launch an IPO via a SPAC deal. He noted that the rapid growth of connected TV advertising (CTV) made it an opportune time for his business to go public. While the company is profitable, Netter also explained the various avenues it will take to increase total revenue.
Reese Mozer, CEO and co-founder of American Robotics, joins Cheddar News to discuss innovations in edge computing and how drone technology can maximize its potential.
