
Hacker Attack on Essential Pipeline Shows Infrastructure Weaknesses
Ransomware is steadily hitting harder. Could banks or subway systems be next?

Hacker Attack on Essential Pipeline Shows Infrastructure Weaknesses
Ransomware is steadily hitting harder. Could banks or subway systems be next?

Artificial Intelligence Develops an Ear for Birdsong
Machine-learning algorithms can quickly process thousands of hours of natural soundscapes


Algorithm Virtually Unfolds a Historical Letter without Unsealing It
In the centuries before envelopes, “letterlocking” secured a message’s information

Quantum Network Is Step Toward Ultrasecure Internet
The experiment connects three devices with entangled photons, demonstrating a key technique that could enable a future quantum Internet

An IBM AI Debates Humans—but It’s Not Yet the Deep Blue of Oratory
The give-and-take of formal arguments is still outside of a machine’s “comfort zone”—at least for now

AI Can Now Debate with Humans and Sometimes Convince Them, Too
Today on the Science Talk podcast, Noam Slonim of IBM Research speaks to Scientific American about an impressive feat of computer engineering: an AI-powered autonomous system that can engage in complex debate with humans over issues ranging from subsidizing preschool and the merit of space exploration to the pros and cons of genetic engineering.
In a new Nature paper, Slonim and his colleagues show that across 80 debate topics, Project Debater’s computational argument technology has performed very decently—with a human audience being the judge of that. “However, it is still somewhat inferior on average to the results obtained by expert human debaters,” Slonim says.
In a 2019 San Francisco showcase, the system went head-to-head with expert debater Harish Natarajan.
Beyond gaming, it’s rare to see humans and machines go against each other, let alone in an oratory competition.
Not unlike its human counterpart, the AI was given only 15 minutes to research the topic and prepare for the debate—rifling through thousands of gigabytes of information at record speed to form an opening statement and layer counterarguments that were later delivered through a robotic female voice, in fragments and with near perfect diction.
It couldn’t best Natarajan in San Francisco, but in a different debate, the system—co-led by Slonim and fellow IBM researcher Ranit Aharonov—has managed to change the stance of nine people in a debate on the use of telemedicine, essentially swaying the debate to its side and rebutting the argument of its opponent.
In other words, in this realm, humans still prevail.
But how do you build the architecture for a complex system like this? Is the AI capable of recognizing meaning or larger contexts in a debate? Can a system descended from Project Debater one day intervene in real-life social media arguments to quell misinformation or stir a debate in one direction or another, for better or worse? We answer these questions and more in the podcast.

How We Got More Than 10,000 Students from 120 Countries to Embrace the Joy of Coding
Stanford is offering its popular computer science intro course for free—and you can help teach it

A Global Computer Chip Shortage Shows Danger of U.S. Production Trends
A small and shrinking number of the world’s computer chips are made in the U.S.

Machine Learning Pwns Old-School Atari Games
You can call it the “revenge of the computer scientist.” An algorithm that made headlines for mastering the notoriously difficult Atari 2600 game Montezuma’s Revenge can now beat more games, achieving near perfect scores, and help robots explore real-world environments. Pakinam Amer reports.

‘March Mammal Madness’ Brings Simulated Animal Fights to Huge Audiences
The annual science education event describes imaginary encounters to teach ecology

How Hackers Tried to Add Dangerous Lye into a City’s Water Supply
A cybersecurity expert explains how safety systems stopped the attack

How to Stop Doomscrolling News and Social Media
“Doomscroll Reminder Lady” Karen K. Ho explains how to step away from the screen