A large part of debating is not about disagreement, but it is about finding agreement. Negotiators who are good at taking other people's perspective are often more effective because they're better at finding those hidden points of agreement. A machine could never truly pull this off, to persuade. Is human, right? But if we think of the mentalizing system in the human brain as simply something that forms holds and helps us retrieve mental representations of other human beings, don't you think my phone might have already a mental representation of me that may be more accurate even than a human friend?'
This episode, featuring Andy Luttrell of the Opinion Science Podcast, is all about a machine, built by IBM, that can debate human beings on any issue, which leads to the question: is persuasion, with language, using arguments, and the ability to alter another person’s attitudes, beliefs, values, opinions, and behavior a uniquely human phenomenon, or could you be persuaded to change your mind by an artificial intelligence designed to do just that? If so, what does that say about opinions, our arguments, and in the end, our minds?
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