AI predicted Oscars, Kentucky Derby. And Cubs win back in July

[Independent voter]

We have bookies here in Nevada that try to predict this stuff so they can set betting odds, I don't think any of them were predicting a Cubs win in July





http://www.marketwired.com/press-rel...on-2172570.htm

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 3, 2016) - While many fans dreamed the Chicago Cubs would make it to the World Series, few fans or pundits actually predicted it. Even this year, with their strongest team in recent memory. But UNU, the world's first Artificial Swarm Intelligence, made a bold set of baseball predictions back in early July, naming all eight teams to make the playoffs and asserting the Cubs would win their first pennant since 1945 and first World Series since 1908. For good measure, UNU also correctly picked the Cubs' opponent, the Cleveland Indians.

It was way back at midseason, during the All-Star break, when the Boston Globe challenged Unanimous A.I. to use their UNU system to do something audacious -- predict the full outcome of the 2016 baseball season. Unanimous delivered a set of picks to the Globe, which they published and have been tracking ever since. With the season now complete, we can report that the UNU artificial intelligence was remarkably accurate, having (a) correctly all eight playoff teams to make it past the wildcard round, (b) correctly predicted that the Cubs and Indians to make it through the LDS and LCS rounds to the World Series, and (c) correctly predicted the Cubs to win it all and end their historic 108-year dry spell.

This is not the first time Unanimous A.I. has made headlines for remarkable predictions. Earlier this year, Newsweek challenged their UNU system to predict the 2016 Academy Awards. The Artificial Swarm Intelligence achieved 76% accuracy, out-performing the vast majority of professional movie experts, including Rolling Stone and the LA Times. Unanimous A.I. was then challenged by TechRepublic to predict the Kentucky Derby superfecta -- the first four horses in order. UNU made a perfect pick against 542 to 1 odds, turning a $20 bet into $11,800. Unanimous was challenged by CNET to predict the Stanley Cup. UNU not only predicted the Penguins would win it all, but correctly predicted the MVPS and outperformed the experts in predicting the number of games each series would go.

"We're amazed that UNU was able to predict the outcome of the full baseball season back in July, identifying that the World Series would feature Cubs vs Indians," said Dr. Louis Rosenberg, founder of Unanimous A.I. "We worried a bit about the Cubs prediction when the Cubs fell behind 3 games to 1, especially given their history, but ultimately UNU was right again."

Developed by Silicon Valley startup, Unanimous A.I., and based on years of scientific research on Artificial Swarm Intelligence, UNU is a unique merger of software algorithms and real-time human input. Modeled after swarms in nature, UNU enables groups of online users to think together as a unified emergent intelligence -- a "brain of brains" that can express itself as a singular entity. Touted to as the world's first "hive mind," the UNU platform has had over 60,000 human participants in swarming sessions this year, together answering over 250,000 questions.

Swarm Intelligence, the science behind UNU, goes back to the birds and the bees. In fact, it goes to all creatures that amplify their group intelligence by forming flocks, schools, colonies, herds, and swarms. Across countless species, nature show us that social groups -- when working together as a unified dynamic system -- can outperform the majority of individual members when solving problems and making decisions, proving the old adage: many minds are better than one.

In 2014, researchers at Unanimous A.I. first discovered that people can form online swarms that amplify intelligence just like natural swarms. So Unanimous built the UNU platform to bring that experience to everyone. Users can login for free, join an existing swarm, or form their own swarm on any topic. From sports and politics, to movies and music, online groups can form their own emergent intelligence and ask it questions about anything.

For those interested in tapping into a swarm, visit: http://unu.ai.

About Unanimous A.I. Unanimous A.I. develops Artificial Swarm Intelligence technologies, amplifying the brainpower of human groups to super-human levels. For more information about the company, including details about our UNU platform for consumers, or our Swarm Insight™ portal for enterprise, visit http://unanimous.ai/ or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

[Deleted]

So who did it predict would become the PotUS?

[Yvaelle]

Hmmmm, so I just jumped into it and tried it.

11 people were in a chat room, someone posed a question, we all voted for an answer.

My question then becomes - when it says UNU got the right answer to all these questions - how many times was it asked these questions?

If I ask "Who will win Donald or Hillary?" - and I get to ask that question 5000 times, but only count the one time I got the "right answer" - I'm not a wizard.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Hmmmm, so I just jumped into it and tried it.
11 people were in a chat room, someone posed a question, we all voted for an answer.
My question then becomes - when it says UNU got the right answer to all these questions - how many times was it asked these questions?
If I ask "Who will win Donald or Hillary?" - and I get to ask that question 5000 times, but only count the one time I got the "right answer" - I'm not a wizard.

Haha.

I'm sitting here wondering: Is this even AI?

Am I getting this wrong or is this basically just a poll with some excel speed-sheet formulas throw in for lulz?

Developed by Silicon Valley startup, Unanimous A.I., and based on years of scientific research on Artificial Swarm Intelligence, UNU is a unique merger of software algorithms and real-time human input. Modeled after swarms in nature, UNU enables groups of online users to think together as a unified emergent intelligence -- a "brain of brains" that can express itself as a singular entity. Touted to as the world's first "hive mind," the UNU platform has had over 60,000 human participants in swarming sessions this year, together answering over 250,000 questions.

[Independent voter]

He describes how "stock brokers" would send out a "free stock prediction" to thousands of email addresses. The prediction would be a simple up/down prediction for a specific stock. The prediction was randomly chosen. But these "brokers" would send an equal number of up and down predictions, ensuring that they got a correct prediction for half of their recipients. They would then throw away half of the emails (the wrong half), and repeat with the remaining half. After ten predictions, there would still be a small number of people remaining for whom they'd sent only correct predictions to (10 in a row, which seems really impressive if you can't see the full picture). They would then contact these few people and offer to keep selling them predictions for a fee.

this is from the comments, there was this group of con men who figured out a scheme to make themselves look like genius investors.

I think this UNU thing is legit, but I don't really know.

[muto]

Oh no. It predicted Corrupt Hillary as the next President.

[Yvaelle]

Haha.

I'm sitting here wondering: Is this even AI?

Am I getting this wrong or is this basically just a poll with some excel speed-sheet formulas throw in for lulz?

It's not AI, it's Swarm Intelligence.

A swarm is when you group a bunch of brains (humans) together, and ask each to come to an answer individually - then when we average out those individual decision processes, the outcome is your answer.

What's interesting about swarm intelligences (general consensus, if you will) is that they can often make the right choice at a much higher rate than you might expect.

[Deleted]

So...a hivemind? Resistance is futile.

[ro9ue]

So who did it predict would become the PotUS?

This is the answer we need right now.