Science

Who Will Win Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Chicago Bears? AI Predicts

The Mitch Trubisky countdown continues.

Getty Images / Jason Miller

It’s a bad rebuilding year for the Chicago Bears, who have dealt with injuries and generally poor play in a pair of early losses. The Pittsburgh Steelers look as dependably good as ever. A hive mind of more than 30 NFL fans see about as much drama as you would expect from Sunday’s game, predicting the Steelers to win easily.

Perhaps the biggest question heading into Sunday’s game — and any game featuring the Bears from here on out — is when number one overall draft pick Mitch Trubisky will get the call to step in at quarterback. Chicago starter Mike Glennon has been underwhelming at best in the first couple games, but the Bears’ offensive line is in such bad shape that it’s probably best to keep Trubisky on the sidelines… for now. We’ll see whether Pittsburgh is good enough to force the issue Sunday.

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The Bears and Steelers previously played in 2013.

Getty Images / Justin K. Aller

To predict the result of this and other games, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence to forecast the week’s slate. More than 40 NFL 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. Here’s how Unanimous A.I. founder Lloyd Rosenberg explaining swarm intelligence at a recent TEDx Talk.

Unanimous A.I. has made some scarily accurate predictions in the past using swarm intelligence, as our previous article explains.

Unanimous A.I.

There’s little doubt here in the swarm’s mind, with not even the fact Chicago is at home deterring the hive mind from rushing toward the Steelers to win. This is one of the swarm’s most confident picks of week three.

Unanimous A.I.

That line calls for the Steelers to win on the road by more than a touchdown, which might explain why the swarm is considerably more reticent to make the same pick with high confidence — a drop in collective brainpower from 92 to 73 percent is pretty massive. It’s a weird pick, in that the hive mind remains very confident in Pittsburgh, but with quite a bit more dissent in the pick.

The game kicks off 1 p.m. Eastern Sunday on CBS.

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