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Noam Slonim
Project Debater, Principal Investigator and Distinguished Engineer at IBM Research
Noam Slonim is a prominent Israeli computer scientist, currently serving as the Principal Investigator and Distinguished Engineer at IBM Research in Haifa, Israel. Born in 1968 in Jerusalem, Slonim specializes in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computational Argumentation. He has been instrumental in the development of Project Debater, an advanced AI system designed to engage in live debates with expert human debaters.
Education and Career
Slonim earned his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Physics, and Mathematics from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1996. He completed his Ph.D. there in 2002, focusing on the Information Bottleneck method under the supervision of Professor Naftali Tishby. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted post-doctoral research at Princeton University from 2003 to 2006 before joining IBM Research in 2007.13
At IBM, he has held various positions related to Project Debater since its inception. The project was proposed by Slonim in 2011 as part of IBM's ongoing exploration of AI capabilities, following earlier successes like Watson. Project Debater aims to analyze arguments and engage in structured debates on various topics, showcasing the potential of AI in understanding and generating human-like discourse.23
Contributions to Project Debater
Slonim's work on Project Debater includes leading its development and conducting several public demonstrations where the AI debated human champions on contentious issues. The project was publicly unveiled during a live debate event in February 2019, where it debated Harish Natarajan, a record-holding debater, on the topic of preschool subsidies.24
In addition to his engineering and research roles, Slonim has a diverse background that includes writing for television and publishing articles on brain science. His contributions extend beyond academia into media, where he has worked as a writer and head writer for various Israeli television shows.3
Research Interests
Slonim's research interests encompass practical applications of language models, particularly focusing on text classification and summarization problems within NLP. He has authored numerous scientific publications and holds over 25 patents related to his work.35
Through his innovative contributions to AI and NLP, Noam Slonim continues to influence the field significantly, particularly with his pioneering work on Project Debater.

