Posted by Hi guys! Today, I am going to talk about my experience on the robot ethics debate competition. Yes, it has been a while since that event. It has been almost two or three months since I went there. Today, I am going to share my experience of going there.
So, first of all, what is ICRES? ICRES stands for International Conference on Robot Ethics and Standards. So, basically, they are related to robot ethics. In this year, they opened a debate competition related to robot ethics in South Korea, where I live. So, I decided to go there.
I prepared a lot. My parents even helped me write the script. However, the preparation time is kind of boring, so I will just summarize it. The debate topic was ” Are AI friends more friendly than human friends? (on the condition that they can understand and sympathize with human) Also, how should we prepare for the future?”. This topic was really hard. First of all, it was hard trying to know what the topic is talking about. The topic I said just a few lines ago isn’t the topic. I just wrote what I understood from the topic. However, the topic itself was very elusive. I had a few hard weeks trying to understand them. Finally, I finalized my opinion to “Robot friends might have many advantages, but I believe that they have more disadvantages.” In the script (I will post it below), I talked about disadvantages of having a robot friends, such as that they can make our mind weaker, and they can decrease our socialization. I also talked about how there is a danger of robot tyranny. Lastly, I explained about the solutions of each of the problems, such as to make a law, or that we should make a limit on robot’s ability to learn.
The bad thing was that, the contents of the script wasn’t the only problem of preparing. The script needed to be under one minute. That was the hardest problem for me. I like to write long scripts, if I go into a debate. However, I needed to summarize my script. That was the hardest part. When I summarized all I could, I tried speaking it, and it was 58 seconds. AND my mom told me I spoke too fast. However, I finally managed to make my script well.
To be honest, I didn’t prepare for any rebuttal or something. Making the script made me so tired. So, when I finally went to Coex, I needed to improvise the rebuttal. From now on, I will tell you what actually happened inside the room.
Here is how the competition went on: First, there was 12 teams, consisted of 5 speakers. The 5 speakers debated, and only one go onto the next stage. In the next stage, there is 3 teams consisted of 4 members, and two go up. In the final stage, there are six members, and they give 3 bronze, 2 silver, and 1 gold.
I knew some of the students who were there. There were two from my academy, and three from my school. Luckily, in the first round, I didn’t get into any of them. When I went into the room, I looked at who I was going to debate with. I was sure two of them aren’t going to go up, but I didn’t know the rest of them. They seemed to be good speakers. So, I just proceeded on my debate. It was actually fun. I found many points to make while they were speaking. I pointed out everything I could, but there was a time limit, and to be honest, it spoiled my fun, When it was my turn, there was a lot of attacks, because everybody was opposing my side. However, they were all rebuttals I expected, and I managed to counter their attacks. However, I was nervous, because I thought I was not going to win. When the judges came over to our table to announce the winner, I was really nervous. When they called my name, I couldn’t believe it. I made it!! I made it to the second round! I was ecstatic, so I went told my mom this news, and she told me congratulations. However, she told me that there was smart-looking guys in the second round, and unfortunately, I was in the same team with one of them, plus there was an American-Korean girl, who was really good at speaking. Also, the other student’s personality was all different. One girl just spoke her script and didn’t do any thing special. The smart-looking boy kept attacking, and had a strong sense of what he is talking about. The American girl was similar with the first girl, but she attacked and countered well. I thought I couldn’t win them, and sure I couldn’t. I was confused of what the others were saying, and I thought I screwed up. However, when the judges came, they called the American girl’s name first. I thought that the other boy will get the prize. He did really well. Surprisingly, they called my name! I made it to the finals!
I went to my mom to tell this ecstatic news, and the funny things was, she stood up and was already ready to go home when I saw her, because she thought that I lost. She was really surprised when she heard the news that I made it to the finals.
To be honest, I don’t really have any memory of going to the finals. I just remember there was a mike, and the other student did really well. They all attacked me really well, and I was just able to defend myself in some kind of weird way. At last, the finals were over, and the only thought I had was to go home. I didn’t care of what prize I get, I just wanted to go home and lie down, it was a hard day. When they announced the bronze prize, my name was called. It was a little bit sad, but I was one of the top 6 students in Gangnam who are good at debating! I was happy with my prize, and happily went home.
So, this was the story of my debate competition, and I hope you read this when you are going out a competition. Be careful of covid, and bye!
(I will upload the full version of the video on other posts If I can)