Publicity Stunt With A Purpose

IBM is a master of the publicity stunt to demonstrate capabilities of its hardware and software. Here is the latest effort. Apparently, the machine held its own against debate champions in an argument over “whether space exploration should be subsidized, and whether we should increase the use of telemedicine.” The stunt was designed to gain maximum awareness for IBM’s work in artificial intelligence, and it is similar to Watson and its win at Jeopardy. The company has set lofty goals for its machines. It wants to achieve the ability for humans to converse with the software over matters about which there is no clarity. In other words, the machine can infer arguments based on incomplete data. That will be extraordinary progress should IBM reach it. The publicity stunt for such a feat should be amazing.