I'm kind of the cynical type guy too, but that looks like an interesting initiative to me. What makes you think it's the people? Do you have experience with previous similar tools?

Also, you have to look at it with the expectation of a rise of automated moderation tools, and maybe even AIs entering into the debates.

We are waiting for IBM to unleash their Debate AI on us :)

Look out, it’ll just be a guy in a shiny box who makes tutting sounds whenever someone uses the word “fuck” and they bill by the picosecond.

But it's possible that the people who are drawn to use this toolset will be more interested in and committed to honest rational discussion than the mean.

I'm a strong proponent of using Technology to buttress human deficiencies. However, I have yet to see a technology that can adequately give scaffolding to support human reasoning in a way that doesn't exacerbate some bias.