The six-seed Miami Hurricanes have been living on the edge, gutting out their final four regular season wins by a combined eight points. Can the Hurricanes’ knack for late-game magic keep them afloat against their opening round opponent?
That shouldn’t seem too difficult, given we’re talking about a relatively lowly 11 seed in the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers. But the Missouri Valley upstarts grade out very well in both offensive and defensive numbers, meaning they might have what it takes to pull an upset. A hive mind of fans predicts who will win.
To predict the result of this and other games, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence to forecast the week’s slate. About 50 college basketball fans worked together as a hive mind to make picks. As you can see in the animation below, each participant controlled a little golden magnet and used it to drag the puck toward the answer they thought was the most likely outcome. As the users saw the puck move toward a particular outcome, it triggers a psychological response. They readjust their decision-making, building toward a consensus.
This is going to be another nail-biter. The hive mind has Loyola-Chicago just barely nudging out Miami, albeit with low confidence. The swarm decided this with 71 percent of its brainpower, so chances are this will be a close game.
Read more from Inverse: The Perfect NCAA Bracket Is A.I.’s Biggest Sports Challenge Yet
Unanimous A.I. has made some scarily accurate predictions in the past using swarm intelligence, as our previous article explains. For instance, the swarm picked this year’s Oscar winners with 94 percent accuracy. Here’s Unanimous A.I. founder Louis Rosenberg explaining swarm intelligence at a recent TEDx Talk.
The game tips off Thursday at 3:10 p.m. Eastern in Dallas on truTV.
