I think debates can be useful, especially when explicitly denoted like this. It can encourage discovery of all evidence for and against a hypothesis by treating it like a competitive game, which humans are good at.
However, to be effective debate sides should be randomly chosen. Otherwise, people might get too invested and start goodharting. By making the sides random, you can keep the true goal in mind while still having enough competitiveness to motivate you.
I think debates can be useful, especially when explicitly denoted like this. It can encourage discovery of all evidence for and against a hypothesis by treating it like a competitive game, which humans are good at.
However, to be effective debate sides should be randomly chosen. Otherwise, people might get too invested and start goodharting. By making the sides random, you can keep the true goal in mind while still having enough competitiveness to motivate you.