The 11 seed Loyola-Chicago Ramblers are the Cinderella team of the Sweet Sixteen, the only double-digit seed left that isn’t, well, Syracuse. After beating a pair of big conference powers in Miami and Tennessee, can they beat another mid-major and move onto the Sweet Sixteen?
The mid-major in question is the seven seed Nevada Wolfpack, who are somehow now the second highest-seeded team remaining in the South Regional. They got here with thrilling victories over the Texas Longhorns and Cincinnati Bearcats, including a 21-point comeback in the latter. One of these teams is guaranteed to keep the magic going for at least one more round, and a hive mind of fans predicts which one.
To predict the result of this and other games, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence to forecast the bracket. About 60 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 swarm is behind the Cinderella for one more game, though only just. This is a low confidence pick with 55 percent brainpower behind it. This is really a toss-up.
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 7:07 p.m. Eastern on CBS.
