The Texas Tech Raiders needed a late run to hold off a shocking upset from the 14-seed Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. Can they regroup as they take on stiffer competition in the second round?
Specifically, the third-seeded Red Raiders must face the six-seed Florida Gators, who used a mid-game 14-0 run to get up on St. Bonaventure and never look back. A hive mind of fans predicts which team will emerge victorious.
To predict the result of this and other games, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence to forecast the bracket. 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.
Picking before the tournament began, the swarm likes Texas Tech to win, but you can see how long it takes for that prediction to lock in. The choice has just 71 percent brainpower behind it, which isn’t especially high.
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 Saturday at 8:40 p.m. on TNT.
