Project Debater - from grand challenge to business applications, behind the scenes and lessons learned

Abstract

Project Debater started as an IBM grand challenge idea in 2011, and eventually competed on stage with a world-renowned debater in 2019. The team has since been further developing the underlying technology, applying it to various business use cases, and is providing access to the underlying tech for non-commercial use. In this talk I will provide a behind the scenes perspective on developing such a project from an idea to a machine that can debate humans, highlight some of the technical innovations including the recent publication in Nature, and discuss various business applications of the technology and how it fits in the overall Language Strategy for IBM Research.