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  • For the purpose of this debate, cognition and consciousness refers to the ability for animals to be self-aware of their environment and internalize subjective experiences (e.g. emotions, thoughts, and desires).

    Infoslide

    This house hopes for the existence of animal cognition and consciousness

    Athena Debate Championship 2025 · Pattaraday Finals Finals · 2025-02-22

  • This house opposes the stigmatization of epistemological anarchism

    Infoslide

    Epistemological anarchism is the belief that there is no single correct way to gain knowledge. It challenges the belief that the scientific method is the only way to gain knowledge and rejects the dismissal of non-scientific approaches, such as astrology, traditional medicine, intuition, and unmeasurable emotions. Epistemological anarchism further rejects the idea of a shared objective truth, seeing knowledge as always subject to change.

    Leiden Open 2025 · Grand Final · 2025-02-22

  • This House, as the scientist, would go public with the information.

    Infoslide

    You are a scientist who has made a groundbreaking discovery that a catastrophic, irreversible event will result in the end of all human life within one week. There is no way to prevent or mitigate this outcome. You have sole knowledge of this information, and no one else is aware of the impending disaster.

    HYDS Pro-Am 2025 · Round 4 · 2025-02-19

  • This house regrets the prevalence of technopessimism.

    Infoslide

    Technopessimism is a worldview that sees future milestone technological achievements as likely to be harmful in aggregate. Fictional works like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Arcane, and Black Mirror have technopessimist themes, and a number of real-world movements (certain environmentalist groups advocating degrowth, some AI safetyists who are worried about mass unemployment) subscribe to technopessimism.

    Hart House High Schools 2025 · Round 5 · 2025-02-15

  • Given the opportunity, This house would permanently erase all knowledge of artificial intelligence.

    Infoslide

    You are offered a pill that would cause all the knowledge we have about artificial intelligence (and all memories, records, and instantiations of that knowledge) to cease to exist. Knowledge about topic areas of direct relevance to AI (e.g. into neural networks or machine learning) is included in the reset, but more foundational knowledge (e.g. general computer science, electrical engineering) would not be impacted.

    Hart House High Schools 2025 · Grand Final · 2025-02-15

  • This house supports OpenAI's transition from the current model to the PBC model

    Infoslide

    OpenAI currently operates under a hybrid model where OpenAI Inc. is a nonprofit that oversees its mission to build AI for the benefit of humanity, while OpenAI LLC is its for-profit subsidiary with investments from companies like Microsoft. In this model, investors are subject to a capped-profit system, meaning their returns are limited to ensure that the company's social mission takes precedence over maximizing profits. A Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) is a for-profit structure that allows companies to balance financial returns with a legally defined commitment to public good. In a PBC, investors can receive uncapped returns, but the company is legally obligated to consider the impact of its actions on society and stakeholders beyond just its shareholders.

    5th Ikhtilaf Parliamentary Debate 2025 · Open Semi Finals · 2025-02-08

  • This house regrets the rapid expansion of neobanks in the financial sector

    Infoslide

    Neobanks (e.g. Chime, N26) are financial institutions that offer banking services entirely online. Neobanks have no physical branches, and are legally classified as fintech entities rather than licensed, regulated banks.

    5th Ikhtilaf Parliamentary Debate 2025 · Novice Finals · 2025-02-08

  • This house regrets the popularisation of RCTs in developmental economics research

    Infoslide

    Randomized controlled trials are experiments that apply an intervention to only a randomly selected portion of the target population, so that you can compare the effects of the intervention against a group that didn’t receive it. From a focus largely on nation-scale problems with no clear answers (like why countries are poor), the field of development economics has shifted to a focus largely on smaller problems that can be definitively answered since the introduction of RCTs. Some people, however, are vary that RCTs dehumanize people and treat them as science experiments.

    5th Ikhtilaf Parliamentary Debate 2025 · Novice Semi Finals · 2025-02-08

  • This house regrets the rapid expansion of neobanks in the financial sector

    Infoslide

    Neobanks (e.g. Chime, N26) are financial institutions that offer banking services entirely online. Neobanks have no physical branches, and are legally classified as fintech entities rather than licensed, regulated banks.

    5th Ikhtilaf Parliamentary Debate 2025 · Open Semi Finals · 2025-02-08

  • This house prefers a world with the Eye of Rah.

    Infoslide

    The Eye of Rah is a widely accessible device that can quickly calculate an action's effect on the overall quantity of wellbeing in the universe thus far. The Eye considers only the time period between its activation and the action in question.

    Ottawa IV 2025 · Grand Final · 2025-02-01

  • This house believes that the United States should impose regulations designed to slow the development of AGI (e.g., parameter caps, explainability/interpretability requirements, bureaucratic approval processes for AGI R&D, and/or licenses for developers working on AGI).

    Infoslide

    Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a type of AI that matches or surpasses human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of cognitive tasks. This contrasts with narrow AI, which is limited to specific tasks.

    Ottawa IV 2025 · Round 2 · 2025-02-01