Debate empowers human over artificial intelligence, authors argue

LAWRENCE — Far from lessening the value of debate, artificial intelligence reiterates it and makes it even more valuable going forward, according to a new paper from a University of Kansas debate coach.

Brett Bricker is associate specialist and associate director of debate in the Department of Communication Studies. He and his frequent co-author, Jacob Justice, assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Mississippi, have just published “Human intelligence: Justifying debate in the Age of AI" in the journal Argumentation and Advocacy.

Even as the large language models that grab headlines continue to improve — to the point where they now threaten the jobs of journalists, for example — AI’s faults put more of a premium on the necessary and employer-desired skills taught in debate, the authors argue. 

That includes information literacy, clear communication and even empathy.

“Social media and AI help people live within their bubble where it is unnecessary to consider the viewpoint of others,” Bricker said. “This problem predates AI, of course, but AI amplifies it in that social media companies are using AI to power algorithms to make it so that people feel very comfortable on their platforms. The polarization of news media allows a very similar phenomenon where you can watch only news slanted to your beliefs, and you don't really have to engage with the other side.”

That is not possible in debate. 

“Not only do students have to be prepared to argue both sides of a question, it is an absolute requirement that students will sit in a room with someone who disagrees with them for two hours, having a neutral and qualified arbiter evaluate the arguments presented,” Bricker said.

“It forces people to get outside of their comfort zone. And even if they don’t change their beliefs, it forces them to have much more clarity about the best arguments against their own position. And that is actually pretty important to empathy.”

At the start of just the second school year since AI became a hot topic in the general public, Bricker said, higher education, to some degree, has moved from panic to complacency. 

“The assumption is that it is here to stay, and we're just going to have to deal with it,” Bricker said. “And that is worrying to me — that we basically didn't figure it out fast enough to find a solution to its academic drawbacks. So now we're just accepting, as if all the negative ramifications of it are inevitable, or that we ought to just ... muddle through.”

Bricker said it’s important to establish guidelines for the use of AI in higher education as soon as possible.

“Now is the time to put guardrails in place that ensure our students are still getting what we want them to, especially out of a liberal arts education.”

Debate remains an important part of that, according to Bricker and Justice.

“Debate offers a chance to combat the decline of writing and bolster critical thinking skills,” they write.