Open to Debate

American non-profit media group

Open to Debate Foundation

Open to Debate Foundation Logo

Founded| 2006 in New York City, United States
Founder(s)| Robert Rosenkranz
CEO| Clea Conner
Industry| Nonprofit Media
URL| opentodebate.org

Open to Debate Foundation, formerly Intelligence Squared U.S.,[1] is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media group that produces nationally broadcast debates and conversations spanning technology, law, global affairs, culture, science, medicine, and public policy issues. The mission of the organization is to "address the extreme polarization of our nation and our politics" and "restore critical thinking, facts, reason, and civility to American public discourse".[2]

Open to Debate has produced more than 200 live debates since 2006, when it was the U.S. division of the London based media group Intelligence Squared. In 2019, it hosted the first debate ever between an artificial intelligence and a human being, in partnership with IBM's "Project Debater”.[3]

Open to Debate episodes have been broadcast on NPR since 2007,[4] in addition to Bloomberg Television,[5][6] BBC,[7] PBS,[8] Newsy,[9] C-SPAN,[10] and education streaming platform Wondrium.[11]

In April 2023, Intelligence Squared U.S. changed its name to Open to Debate to reflect their shift toward a model of open discussion which they hoped would help combat rising levels of polarization in US politics.[1]

## Founding

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Open to Debate was founded in 2006, originally named Intelligence Squared U.S., by philanthropist Robert Rosenkranz as a nonprofit organization based on Intelligence Squared in the UK.[12] It was created as a distinctly nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with a mission to "raise the level of public discourse" in America.[13][14] Based in New York City, Open to Debate produces a weekly debate program that is broadcast as a radio program, podcast, and digital video. Open to Debate hosts debates around the country and partners with a variety of institutions in the private and public sectors.[15]

## Programming

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Open to Debate programs a variety of debate formats, including Oxford-Style[16] inspired by the Oxford Union, Unresolved, Agree-To-Disagree, and interviews on American public discourse trends.[17] In the traditional Oxford-style debate format, two teams of two are assembled to debate a sharply framed resolution and the debate is conducted in three rounds: opening remarks, a cross examination and live audience Q&A, and closing remarks.[16] In the “Unresolved” format, which the organization created, up to five participants can debate and change their mind from one resolution to another.[18]

## Activism on US presidential debates

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Open to Debate has called for the need to “fix the presidential debates” since 2016.[19] The organization launched a petition and media campaign calling on the Commission on Presidential Debates to reform the debate formats that are presented to the American public. The petition called on Americans to support an initiative to change the format of the Presidential debates, and garnered more than 60,000 signatures and millions of engagements on YouTube and across social media.[20]

In 2017, Open to Debate was a co-sponsor of the 2017 New York City mayoral election debates, broadcast on NY1.[21][22][23]

During the 2020 election, Open to Debate was featured in The New Yorker,[24] Politico,[25] and CNN,[26] among other media outlets, to help improve the Presidential debates.[27] During the 2020 election, they presented three virtual debates on Bloomberg Television,[28] which were referenced as examples of how Presidential debates could still be produced during a global pandemic.[29]

## Project Debater AI and That's Debatable program

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In 2019, Open to Debate served as the host of the first debate in history between an artificial intelligence and a human debater.[30] The debate took place between IBM's Project Debater, an artificial intelligence project designed to debate humans, and Harish Natarajan, who holds the world record in number of debate competition victories. The motion was "We should subsidize preschools."[31][32] It has since been featured in a documentary produced by IBM [33] and in Adam Grant's book, Think Again.[34]

"That's Debatable" followed two years later as a television series presented by Bloomberg Media and Open to Debate[35]

For each episode of "That's Debatable," IBM Watson used a new advance in natural language processing (NLP) from IBM Research to provide insight into three distinct debate topics.[3] More than 5,000 arguments were submitted online from around the world across the three topics, which were then analyzed and distilled into key points that were highlighted on the show and discussed by human debaters.[36]

## Partnerships

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Open to Debate has partnered with various institutions in the private sector, public sector, and academia, including the Mayo Clinic,[37] the Brussels Forum,[38][39] Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law,[40] Techonomy,[41] the Philanthropy Roundtable,[42] Stanford University's Hoover Institution,[43] The Richmond Forum,[44] and many more.[15]

Open to Debate has brought more than 800 prominent public figures to the program, garnering thousands of headlines in the press.[45] Past guests and their corresponding debates include:

Dan Abrams, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Stewart Baker, Peter Beinart, Jared Bernstein, Max Boot, Jamelle Bouie, Stewart Brand, Ian Bremmer, David Brooks, Meredith Broussard, Gloria Browne-Marshall, Nicholas Burns, David Carr, Julian Castro, Ze'ev Chafets, Liz Cheney, Michael Chertoff, Derek Chollet, Deepak Chopra, George Church, Wesley Clark, Roger Clegg, Chuck Close, Eliot A. Cohen, Jonathan Cohn, Steve Coll, Tyler Cowen, Michael Crichton, Clive Crook,[46] Howard Dean, Alan Dershowitz, Suzanne DiMaggio, Tim Draper, Esther Dyson, Elizabeth Economy, Zeke Emmanuel, Noah Feldman, Niall Ferguson, Helen Fisher, Jeff Flake, Michele Flournoy, Franklin Foer, David French, David Frum, Jason Furman, Peter Galbraith, Robert P. George, Nick Gillespie, Malcolm Gladwell, Victor Davis Hanson, Melissa Harris-Perry, Michael Hayden, Christopher Hitchens, John Hockenberry, Matthew Hoh, Margaret Hoover, Arianna Huffington, Jeff Jarvis, Karine Jean-Pierre, Simon Johnson, Van Jones, Andrew Keen, Zeba Khan, Parag Khanna, Kris Kobach, Bernard Kouchner, William Kristol, Paul Krugman, Arthur Laffer, Lawrence Lessig, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Bjørn Lomborg, Rich Lowry, John Mackey, Katherine Mangu-Ward, HR McMaster, Roger McNamee, John H McWhorter, John J. Mearsheimer, Yascha Mounk, Dambisa Moyo, Lawrence O'Donnell, P. J. O'Rourke, David Petraeus, Steven Rattner, Kenneth Rogoff, Jeffrey Rosen, Nouriel Roubini, Karl Rove, Jennifer Rubin, Jerry Saltz, David Sanger, Marietje Schaake, Kori Schake, Orville Schell, Peter Schiff, Bobby Shriver, Kristen Silverberg, Eliot Spitzer, Bret Stephens, Harry Stern, Andrew Stern, John Stossel, Nadine Strossen, Gillian Tett, Peter Thiel, Laura Tyson, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Randi Weingarten, Jacob Weisberg, Einat Wilf, Richard Wolff, David Wolpe, Fareed Zakaria, Mark Zandi, Jonathan Zittrain, Manoush Zomorodi, Mort Zuckerman, and hundreds more.[45]

## References

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1. ^ a b "Intelligence Squared U.S. Becomes Open to Debate". PR Newswire. 11 April 2023. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
2. ^ "What is Open to Debate?". Intelligence Squared U.S. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
3. ^ a b Amer, Pakinam (17 March 2021). "AI Can Now Debate with Humans and Sometimes Convince Them Too". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
4. ^ "'Better More Surveillance than Another 9/11'". NPR. 25 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
5. ^ "Intelligence Squared Debates Examines America's Two-Party System". GlobeNewswire. February 16, 2011. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
6. ^ "Bloomberg Television and Intelligence Squared U.S. Announce Lineup for Debut "That's Debatable" Episode". IBM Newsroom. September 18, 2020. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020.
7. ^ "Intelligence Squared Debate on George W. Bush's Legacy". BBC. January 19, 2009. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
8. ^ "WTTW National Production Intelligence Squared". WTTW PBS Station. January 20, 2013. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013.
9. ^ "Up For Debate with Intelligence Squared U.S. and Newsy". Newsy. October 15, 2017. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
10. ^ "Intelligence Squared On the C-SPAN Networks". C-SPAN. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022.
11. ^ "Intelligence Squared U.S. Collection on Wondrium". Wondrium. Archived from the original on 12 November 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
12. ^ "INTELLIGENCE SQUARED Philanthropy Roundtable". The Rosenkranz Foundation. 14 February 2007. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015.
13. ^ "Mission statement for IQ2US". Intelligence Squared U.S. Archived from the original on 15 January 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
14. ^ Konigsberg, Eric (June 2, 2007). "A Hobby That's Part Party, Part Debate, All Intellect". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022.
15. ^ a b "Intelligence Squared U.S. Partners and Sponsors". Intelligence Squared U.S. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022.
16. ^ a b Oxford-Style Debate, Explained. Intelligence Squared. 12 July 2016. Archived from the original on 29 July 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022 - via YouTube.
17. ^ "Intelligence Squared U.S. All Debates". Intelligence Squared U.S. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
18. ^ "Unresolved: American Policing". Intelligence Squared U.S. 30 September 2020. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022.
19. ^ "Intelligence Squared U.S. Advocates For Presidential Debate Reform with Petition". Shore Fire Media. June 15, 2016. Archived from the original on 10 July 2016.
20. ^ How to Fix America's Presidential Debates. Intelligence Squared U.S. 14 June 2016. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022 - via YouTube.
21. ^ "NY1 Online: A Higher Debate". NY1 News. October 9, 2017. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022.
22. ^ "Intelligence Squared U.S. Co-Sponsors NYC's Mayoral Democratic Primary Debate". Shore Fire Media. August 16, 2017. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022.
23. ^ "Reform the Debates?". PBS Station Thirteen. September 16, 2016. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016.
24. ^ Lepore, Jill (September 12, 2016). "The State of the Presidential Debate". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 10 July 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
25. ^ "10 Ideas to Blow Up the Presidential Debate Format". Politico. November 20, 2019. Archived from the original on 12 September 2022.
26. ^ Smerconish, Michael (30 July 2016). "How to Fix the Presidential Debates with John Donovan". CNN. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
27. ^ "How Debates Should Be: Intelligence Squared U.S. Announces Spring Season Tackling the Electoral College, the Two-Party System, Gene Editing, and Much More". Shore Fire Media. December 11, 2019. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
28. ^ "Bloomberg Television and Intelligence Squared U.S. Present That's Debatable". Bloomberg Television. October 10, 2020. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021.
29. ^ Rivero, Nicolás (October 8, 2020). "What would a virtual presidential debate look like?". Quartz. Archived from the original on 14 January 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
30. ^ Samuel, Sigal (12 February 2019). "An AI system competed against a human debate champion. Here's what happened". Vox. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
31. ^ IBM Research Editorial Staff (February 12, 2019). "Think 2019 Kicks Off with Live Debate Between Man and Machine". IBM. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
32. ^ Live Debate - IBM Project Debater. Intelligence Squared U.S. 11 February 2019. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
33. ^ "Epic Digital documents the making of IBM Project Debater: The first AI to debate a human". Vox Media. May 6, 2020. Archived from the original on 15 July 2020.
34. ^ Grant, Adam (2022). "5: Project Debater". Think Again. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-1984878106.
35. ^ "Bloomberg Media and Intelligence Squared U.S. present a new limited debate series "That's Debatable" hosted by Award-Winning Journalist and Moderator John Donvan and featuring AI from IBM Watson". PR Newswire. Bloomberg Media. September 3, 2020. Archived from the original on 16 September 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
36. ^ Kahn, Jeremy (9 October 2020). "IBM showcases latest A.I. advancements on "That's Debatable" TV show". Fortune. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
37. ^ Harringa, Adam (September 20, 2017). "Mayo Clinic's Transform 2017 to bring together health care leaders". Mayo Clinic. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021.
38. ^ "Brussels Forum 2019: Oxford-Style Debate Moderated by Intelligence Squared's John Donvan". German Marshall Fund. Archived from the original on 1 July 2023.
39. ^ Brussels Forum 2020 // Intelligence Squared U.S. Debate: Nationalism Is a Force for Good. Brussels Forum. 26 June 2020. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022 - via YouTube.
40. ^ "We Should Expand The Supreme Court". Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. 30 September 2021. Archived from the original on 23 September 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
41. ^ "IQ2 Debate: Silicon Valley Has Lost Its Soul". Techonomy. November 19, 2018. Archived from the original on 2 October 2022.
42. ^ "Debate: Where Should You Live, and Why?". Rosenkranz Foundation. January 15, 2015. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021.
43. ^ "Hoover Institution Fellows Feature In "Intelligence Squared" Debate About How To Deal With Iran". Hoover Institution. March 4, 2020. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021.
44. ^ Essa, Antoinette (December 22, 2021). "Richmond Forum to bring prominent names to the Altria Theater". WTVR-TV. Archived from the original on 23 December 2021.
45. ^ a b "All Debaters: The World's Greatest Minds Take To The IQ2US Stage". Intelligence Squared U.S. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022.
46. ^ Crook, Clive (February 3, 2017). "I Gave Trump a Chance -- and Lost". BQ Prime. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved April 26, 2022.

## External links

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* Official website
* Open to Debate Podcast on Apple
* Open to debate Podcast on Spotify
* Intelligence Squared U.S. redirected website
* Intelligence Squared UK