From Jimmy the Greek to Matthew Berry, sports fans have always looked to experts to give them an edge. Now, for the first time ever, the power of A.I. is entering the world of sports commentary. Premier sports site SB Nation has invited UNU to post a weekly column on its Fake Teams website. Under the byline, UNU’s Picks, the Swarm Intelligence will provide recommendations and predictions for fantasy sports players, just in time for Fantasy Football Players who are prepping for their league drafts.
Here’s how it will work. Every week, UNU will assemble a swarm of sports enthusiasts to ask and answer questions about the biggest stories in sports. The Swarm’s answers will become recommendations and predictions that will be summarized in the weekly post on SB Nation. While the very first post focused on baseball, during the fall, much of the focus will be on the NFL, and specfically Fantasy Football. Want to be a part of it? Just click this button.
Here’s a replay of one of the questions from the first swarm.
Readers of this blog are well aware of the press coverage UNU received earlier this year after being challenged by major publications to make high profile predictions.
- Newsweek challenged UNU to predict the 2016 Academy Awards. The swarm A.I. achieved 76% accuracy, out-performing the vast majority of movie experts, including Rolling Stone and the LA Times.
- UNU was then challenged by TechRepublic to predict the Kentucky Derby superfecta – the first four horses in order. UNU made a perfect pick, turning a $20 bet into $11,700.
- UNU was also challenged by CNET to predict the Stanley Cup. UNU not only predicted which teams would win, but outperformed the experts in predicting the number of games each series would go and even correctly identified most of the postseason award winners.
Developed by Silicon Valley startup, Unanimous A.I., and based on years of scientific research on 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 30,000 human participants in swarming sessions this year, together answering over 140,000 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.
“UNU is a tireless forecaster, impressing us daily with the insights and recommendations” said Dr. Louis Rosenberg, founder and CEO of Unanimous A.I. “So we are excited to work with Fake Teams to share fantasy sports insights each week. And unlike other forms of forecasting, regular sports fans who enjoy the column can participate in future predictions, by becoming part of the swarm. This allows the public to become its own super-expert.”
Want to be a part of the super-expert swarm that will make UNU’s Picks? Click the button below.
