A 15-year-old student of King’s Way College, Ruth Okorocha, has emerged as the winner of the 2023 Nigeria Info’s “I Beg to Differ” Debate Tournament of Champions.
In an intense final debate, Ruth Okorocha defeated Ramadan Oladipupo for the grand prize of two million naira.
The ‘I Beg to Differ’ tournament is Nigeria Info’s debate programme aimed at championing intellectual conversations to position Nigerian youths as solution providers and critical thinkers.
According to the organisers, “This will invariably develop the intellectual capabilities of the teeming youthful population across Nigeria to critically assess complex socio-economic issues that address national growth and development.”
The Chief Executive Officer of Cool FM, Nigeria Info, and Wazobia FM, Serge Noujaim, commenting on the success of the competition, congratulated the finalists for their resilience throughout the various stages of the competition.
Meanwhile, the first topic of the 2023 Nigeria Info’s “I Beg to Differ” debate was whether people whose data and works are used to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) like DALL-E or ChatGPT should have some ownership rights over the art or insights it generates.
Oladipupo argued that people who contribute their data and work towards training AI models should have some ownership rights over the art or insights that the models generate.
He stated that it was essential to acknowledge the contribution of individuals towards the development of AI and ensure that they have a stake in the outcomes.
Okorocha, on the other hand, contended that AI is a collective effort that involves the contributions of many individuals and organisations.
She argued that ownership of the insights generated by AI should be with the organisations or entities that use the models for their own purposes.
Meanwhile, the programme is a youth-led initiative that seeks to enhance the mental capacity of Nigerian students by promoting healthy debate competitions.
