Artificial Intelligence to improve your skills for debate, arguments

New Delhi : Artificial Intelligence can make your arguments productive and meaningful to reach an agreement, said a report. 

The Center for Argument Technology (ARG-tech) located at the University of Dundee is apparently providing tools based on in-house artificial intelligence designed for arguments.

Chris Reed, director of ARG-tech explains functioning and making of Artificial Intelligence system his company is selling.

More than 10 years ago, ARG-tech turned to the BBC Radio 4 programme, Moral Maze, as an example of “gold-standard” debate: rigorous, tight argument on emotive, topical issues, with careful and measured moderation. They created large “maps” based on every debate that took place on the show, and turned those maps into infographics using an algorithm to "determine the most central themes."

ARG-tech’s argument technology first appeared in public on a special edition of Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4 in October.

It also allows you to virtually participate in the debate and sharpen your skills. The Test Your Argument page on the BBC’s website pits you against virtual participants in a specific argument and allows you to make three attempts to plead your case and convince others of your personal view.

Another argument-based tool is called Debater, which is hosted by ARG-tech. Here, you sit in the middle of a virtual Moral Maze debate inhabited by virtual panelists and witnesses.

“Ultimately, the goal is not to build a machine that can beat us at an argument. Much more exciting is the potential to have A.I. software contribute to human discussion — recognizing types of arguments, critiquing them, offering alternative views and probing reasons are all things that are now within the reach of A.I.,” Reed said.

The Centre for Argument Technology (ARG-tech) at the University of Dundee is all about taking and extending theories from philosophy, linguistics and psychology that tell us about how humans argue, how they disagree, and how they reach consensus – and making those theories a starting point for building artificial intelligence tools that model, recognise, teach and even take part in human arguments.