The Purdue Boilermakers have just wrapped up a great regular season that has them positioned as a number two seed in March Madness. Can they avoid a shocking upset at the hands of 15-ranked Cal State Fullerton?
If you’re a fan of the three-point shot, is this ever the game for you: The Boilermakers shoot a tourney-best 42 percent from behind the arc, while the Titans give up more than their fair share of treys. 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.
The hive mind is highly confident that Purdue will conquer this match. The swarm made this prediction with 95 percent of its brainpower, making the chances of an upset pretty unlikely.
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 on Friday at 12:40 p.m. Eastern in Detroit on truTV.
