IBM: PROJECT DEBATER

Direction + Animation

Artificial Intelligence has long fascinated people, and IBM’s Watson on Jeopardy! remains one of the most iconic examples of AI prowess. Building on that legacy, IBM enlisted our team to help launch their next innovation: IBM Debater, an AI capable of forming and articulating arguments based on real-time research.

Our challenge was to create an approachable, engaging persona for this complex AI that could convey subtle emotions like thoughtfulness, confidence, humor, and even disagreement. Working closely with IBM’s team, we explored a wide range of designs—from 2D and 3D treatments to varying degrees of anthropomorphism and abstraction—before finding our solution in a capsule-shaped avatar. The capsule form offered a clean, recognizable base that allowed for sophisticated visual layering.

To bring the AI avatar to life, we filled the capsule with a “fluid” that visualized speech waves, movement, and shifts in debate momentum. Through animation, we choreographed the capsule’s behavior, developing rules for when it would break into smaller component circles or “stand up” to emphasize a point. This dynamic movement and fluidity enabled IBM Debater to express a wide range of emotions and responses in an engaging, relatable way—making it both sophisticated and approachable for audiences.

Check out the full case study at ExperiencePerception.com

Learn more about Project Debater at research.IBM.com