Can a Machine Ever Argue?
Debates, dilemmas and conflicts are key to human reasoning. They help us make sense of everyday life when decisions need to be taken with inconsistent or incomplete information. This is why we expect our doctors to weigh up different courses of treatment, and why we check various online opinions before we buy anything from books to cars.
If we are ever to value the advice of machines we need to empower them to argue. This requires in particular to give them a way to reason with general rules that admit exceptions so that they know how to reconcile conflicts in general statements such as 'bird fly' (except when they don't) or it is safer to walk rather than run during a fire alarm (except when it isn't).
Francesca Toni is working on models of logic-based argumentation to underpin reasoning in intelligent machines. In her inaugural lecture she will explore challenges of arguing logically and the impact getting it right could have in medical decision making, legal judgements, design engineering and social networks.
| Can a Machine Ever Argue? |
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