Supporting Perspective Acquisition and Opinion Formation on Societal Issues Through AI-Generated Japanese Rap Battle Debates

2026-10-01

AI Summary

This study addresses the high time costs and accessibility barriers of traditional debates, which limit public exposure to diverse perspectives. We propose an AI-driven framework that generates Japanese rap-battle-style debates by leveraging a large language model (GPT-5.4-mini) and speech synthesis to automatically produce rhyming adversarial scripts on social issues, presented through a web interface. Experimental results demonstrate that this approach doubles the number of viewpoints identified by users, with 52.5% of participants reconsidering or revising their prior stances. By innovatively introducing rap battles into educational contexts, this work validates the effectiveness of AI-generated adversarial content in facilitating low-cost, highly engaging perspective acquisition.

Abstract

Acquiring diverse perspectives and forming informed opinions on societal issues are essential for critical thinking and informed decision-making. Although observing debates between opposing viewpoints can promote perspective acquisition, conventional debates require substantial time and human resources, limiting their accessibility. This study investigates whether brief AI-generated rap battle-style debates can support perspective acquisition and opinion formation on societal issues. Rap battles are debate-style performances in which opposing viewpoints are expressed through rhymed verses, making them engaging while preserving the structure of argumentative dialogue. To conduct this investigation, we automatically generated rap battle-style debates using GPT-5.4-mini and presented them to participants with synthesized audio through a web-based viewing interface. We evaluated the educational effectiveness of this approach through a user study involving six participants who viewed 40 debates generated from topics on societal issues used in the All Japan Junior and Senior High School Debate Championships. The results showed that watching approximately 1.5 minute rap battle-style debates nearly doubled the number of opinions and discussion points identified by participants. Furthermore, participants reconsidered or changed their stances in 52.5% of the evaluated cases. These findings demonstrate that even brief AI-generated rap battle-style debates can effectively support perspective acquisition and opinion formation on societal issues.

Problem

• perspective acquisition
• opinion formation
• societal issues
• debate accessibility

Innovation

• AI-generated rap battle
• perspective acquisition
• opinion formation
• automated debate generation
• large language models