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Debate

I am engaged in competitive debating, and more broadly in debating teaching & research, for close to a decade. During that time I became one of the most decorated speakers in the history of the international debating community, have led major global debating events, developed academic courses on the subject, created related algorithms and performed work to connect Artificial Intelligence to debating.  

I often teach, give invited talks, and advise individuals & organizations on the aforementioned subjects.

See my debate bio below. For speaking enquiries, please contact me here.

Debate & AI Video

A demonstration at Cambridge. Video by the BBC.

Sample Debate Round

HWS University. Watch my speech at 45:37.

Debate Bio

Dan is one of the most decorated debaters in the history of the global debating community. In 2018 Dan was crowned Best Speaker at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC), where he he holds the all-time personal ranking record for non-native English speakers. Beyond the world championship, as a speaker, Dan has a collection of over 50 debate trophies, including ones from the European Championship, the Cambridge Intervarsity and the HWS Round Robin (the Champions League of the academic debating world).

Other than his speaking achievements, Dan places a premium on promoting debate as a tool for education, research and business. He was the first Israeli to professionally direct the World Championship (aka the Chief Adjudicator role), and played similar roles in the European Championship, Asian BP Championship and Pan-American Championship amongst many others. Further, Dan has contributed to the design of many of the methods that are used to manage large-scale debating events, is teaching an academic debate course at Tel Aviv University, and has run critical thinking training events in dozens of countries.

By training, Dan is a Bioinformatician and AI researcher. In academia he developed data-driven debating approaches, and was involved in creating IBM’s Project Debater - the first AI system that can debate humans on complex topics. Project Debater was featured in the Copenhagen Film Festival and in Think Again (a New York Time's Best selling book). The Debating Technologies group Dan is a member of at IBM cooperated with the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins, the GrammysBloomberg TV, the Cambridge Union, and more. The group has published papers in leading AI venues, the most notable of which was spotlighted on the cover of Nature - arguably the leading multidisciplinary science journal in the world. Dan has personally received IBM's "Outstanding Technical Achievement Award" for his contributions. 

Dan's work/comments on debating were published in leading media outlets such as the BBC and the New Yorker. He has advised diplomats, educational institutions and leading companies on debating & critical thinking, and he often lectures on the aforementioned topics. 

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