Viking vs. Patriots Predictions: Preview for Cousins vs. Brady Matchup
A "swarm" of 27 NFL enthusiasts worked together as a hive mind to make their prediction.
Finally, a halfway decent game managed to sneak it way onto Ye Olde Schedule for Week 13, which is otherwise replete with matchups more lopsided than the ill-fated romance between Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson.
After absorbing a 34-10 beatdown at the hands of the Titans in Week 10, New England paid it forward by knocking off the Jets on the road last week. The Patriots benefited from the return of two key contributors as Sony “Playstation” Michel and Rob Gronkowski returned to the playing field last week. Michel appears to be 100% after suffering a knee injury against the Bears in Week 7, having rushed for a career-high 133 yards against Gang Green. Lovable lunk Rob Gronkowski also bounced back from a career-high six-game scoring drought, as the sophomoric tight end found paydirt with a 34-yard touchdown snag in the first quarter. It’s all daps, hugs, and smiles in the New England locker room right now, which means bad news for the rest of us. The Patriots have two remaining tests against Minnesota and Pittsburgh in their last five games, with the remainder coming as rematches against the Dolphins, Bills, and Jets, thus all but assuring New England of at least an 11-5 record, if not better.
Meanwhile, at 6-4, the Vikings continue to hang around in the NFC North divisional race and at the periphery of the playoff picture. Minnesota continues to field a tough run defense, tied with Dallas for fourth-best in the League in terms of rushing yards allowed per game. The snakebitten Vikings managed to avoid further bad injury luck after receiving a positive result on cornerback Xavier Rhodes’ MRI test. However, reason for pessimism remains, as Minnesota has yet to beat a team with a winning record this season.
With the Vikings’ stout run defense and playoff hopes still alive, it’s tempting to pick them over the Pats… but not tempting enough. Patriots 27, Vikings 21 is my prediction, but how do a hive-mind of NFL experts predict this one turning out?
To predict the result of this Week 13 match-up, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence. A “swarm” of 27 NFL enthusiasts worked together as a hive mind to make their prediction. As you can see in the animation below, each participant controlled a golden magnet and used it to drag the puck toward the result they thought was the most likely outcome. This is where it gets interesting: As a user sees the puck move toward a particular decision, it triggers a psychological response. They might readjust their thinking as the group builds toward a consensus. It’s an artificial intelligence, produced by human brains, working together as a swarm.
As you can see, the swarm of 27 NFL experts has low confidence the Patriots will win.
Here’s how Unanimous A.I. has predicted previous NFL games this season.
Unanimous A.I. has made some scarily accurate predictions in the past using swarm intelligence, as our this 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:
