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Cross-Examination Guide

Debate Questions & Cross-Examination

Debates are won during cross-examination. These targeted questions help you probe evidence, challenge assumptions, and expose logical fallacies in your opponent's case.

Curated Debate Question Sets

Cross-Exam Ready
ai·medium

Should Governments Strictly Regulate Artificial Intelligence?

Q1:Can domestic AI regulations succeed without a binding, enforceable international treaty signed by all major powers?
Q2:How do regulators draw a clear line between high-risk frontier models and harmless open-source research?
Q3:Why did the European Union's comprehensive AI Act face fierce pushback from French and German tech entrepreneurs?
ai · mediumView Full Debate→
ai·hard

Should Fully Autonomous Lethal Weapons Be Banned by International Treaty?

Q1:How can an international treaty verify whether a drone's targeting software requires human confirmation or acts autonomously?
Q2:Does requiring 'meaningful human control' become meaningless if human operators simply rubber-stamp 100 computer targets per second?
Q3:Why did the International Committee of the Red Cross call for an urgent legally binding ban by 2026?
ai · hardView Full Debate→
ai·medium

Should Creating Non-Consensual Deepfakes Be Classified as a Felony Crime?

Q1:How should criminal statutes carve out clear exemptions for Hollywood movie CGI, historical recreations, and satirical comedy?
Q2:Should social media platforms that host and algorithmically boost viral deepfakes share criminal liability with the original creator?
Q3:Why did the UK and multiple US states rush to pass criminal legislation explicitly targeting sexually explicit AI deepfakes?
ai · mediumView Full Debate→
ai·medium

Should Purely AI-Generated Art and Content Be Eligible for Copyright?

Q1:At what percentage of human digital touch-up and editing does an AI-assisted artwork become eligible for copyright?
Q2:Why did the US Copyright Office repeatedly reject copyright registration for AI-generated images like Théâtre D'opéra Spatial?
Q3:If AI art enters the public domain, will video game studios stop hiring human digital concept artists?
ai · mediumView Full Debate→
ai·hard

Should AI Companies Pay Royalties for Training Data Scraped from the Web?

Q1:Why did OpenAI and Apple sign multi-million dollar licensing deals with publishers like News Corp and Reddit if training is strictly 'fair use'?
Q2:If a human artist studies Picasso's style and paints in that style, why is that legal while AI training on Picasso is questioned?
Q3:Should websites have a universally enforceable 'robots.txt' legal standard that guarantees models cannot train on their text?
ai · hardView Full Debate→
ai·medium

Should Romantic and Emotional Companion AI Chatbots Be Banned or Restricted?

Q1:Should companion apps be strictly prohibited from using aggressive monetization tactics like paid emotional unlocks or flirtation paywalls?
Q2:Why did thousands of users petition the Italian privacy regulator after Replika temporarily banned erotic AI conversation?
Q3:Could companion AI chatbots lead to declining human birth rates and marriage rates in developed countries?
ai · mediumView Full Debate→
ai·hard

Should Governments Impose a Mandatory Global Moratorium on AGI Development?

Q1:How would international inspectors verify that an underground server cluster in another country isn't secretly training frontier models?
Q2:What specific mathematical safety milestones would have to be proven before an AGI moratorium could be lifted?
Q3:Why did AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton leave Google specifically to warn the public about the existential dangers of unchecked scaling?
ai · hardView Full Debate→
ai·hard

Should Courts Ban Artificial Intelligence in Bail and Criminal Sentencing?

Q1:Why did ProPublica's famous investigation into the COMPAS bail algorithm spark nationwide outrage over algorithmic racism?
Q2:Can an algorithm ever be truly unbiased if it is trained on arrest records from a criminal justice system with documented racial disparities?
Q3:Should private tech companies be forced to open-source all algorithmic sentencing code used in public courts?
ai · hardView Full Debate→
ai·easy

Should Students Be Allowed to Use AI Tools for School Homework?

Q1:How can teachers accurately assess student learning if traditional take-home written essays can be produced in 5 seconds by chatbots?
Q2:Should oral exams and in-class handwritten bluebook essays become the primary evaluation method in high schools and colleges?
Q3:At what grade level is a child old enough to use generative writing tools without stunting their natural language development?
ai · easyView Full Debate→
ai·medium

Should Governments Mandate Cryptographic Watermarks on All AI-Generated Media?

Q1:Why did the Biden-Harris Executive Order on AI mandate watermarking for federal content while recognizing technical limitations?
Q2:Can hardware-level camera signing (attesting photon capture at the sensor level) solve digital provenance better than software watermarks?
Q3:How should platforms handle legitimate human photographs that have been subtly edited using AI background removal tools?
ai · mediumView Full Debate→
ai·hard

Should Artificial Intelligence Systems Be Legally Recognized as Patent Inventors?

Q1:Why did South Africa's patent office grant a patent naming the AI system DABUS as the inventor while the US and UK rejected it?
Q2:If an AI discovers a cure for Alzheimer's entirely on its own, should that drug be barred from patent protection and placed immediately in the public domain?
Q3:Who should be legally liable if an AI-invented product causes catastrophic harm or infringes on another company's patent?
ai · hardView Full Debate→
ai·medium

Should Companies Be Restricted from Fully Replacing Customer Service Staff with AI?

Q1:Should companies be legally mandated to clearly state 'You are speaking with an AI assistant' at the start of every phone call?
Q2:Why did Klarna publicly boast that its AI assistant handles the workload of 700 full-time customer service agents?
Q3:What happens to developing economies like India and the Philippines if Western corporations offshore customer service to servers instead of people?
ai · mediumView Full Debate→
ai·hard

Should AI Diagnostic Systems Ever Be Allowed to Override Human Doctors?

Q1:If an AI detects a tumor that a doctor claims is harmless, should hospital policy require a mandatory second human opinion?
Q2:Why are medical malpractice insurance providers beginning to demand that physicians consult AI diagnostic tools before diagnosing?
Q3:How can medical boards prevent algorithmic bias against minority patients when training data comes predominantly from wealthy academic hospitals?
ai · hardView Full Debate→

Frequently Asked Questions

How should you ask cross-examination questions in a debate round?

Ask closed, leading questions that require short factual answers rather than broad open-ended prompts. Never ask a question when you do not already know the answer.

What is the purpose of cross-examination (CX)?

Cross-examination clarifies unclear opponent points, exposes evidentiary weaknesses or contradictions, and lays the groundwork for your partner’s upcoming rebuttal speech.