Who Will Win Cowboys vs. Colts? A.I. Predicts Prescott vs. Luck Showdown
Here's how a hive-mind of NFL experts think this Week 15 match-up will turn out.
Sigh. The Cowboys are good again, and after winning five in a row and wresting control of the NFC East from the Redskins, they are peaking at the right time, as only three games remain before the playoffs begin. It’s much more fun to point and laugh when the Cowboys are terrible and/or manage to find ways to choke away division leads and important games.
On the other hand, the Colts are 7-6 and remain in the thick of the hunt for the second and final wild card playoff spot in the AFC, even if the AFC South division title is out of reach, as the Texans hold a two-game lead with three remaining. The Colts have won six of their last seven, but were shut out by the lowly Jags two weeks ago in embarrassing fashion. However, Indianapolis rebounded nicely by knocking off the division-leading Texans 24-21 last week.
Which brings us to tonight’s game. Star receiver Amari Cooper leads the NFL in yards after the Raiders traded him to Big D, and by virtually any metric you choose, the Cowboys have a top-five defense. Let’s not overthink this. Cowboys 27, Colts 24 is my prediction, but how does a hive-mind of NFL experts see this game ending up?
To predict the result of this Week 15 match-up, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence. A “swarm” of 34 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 a swarm of NFL experts has low confidence that the Cowboys will beat the Colts on Sunday.
The Cowboys play at the Colts at 1 p.m. Eastern Sunday on Fox.
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:
