Science

Who Will Win Kansas City Chiefs vs. Oakland Raiders? A.I. Predicts

Kansas City looks to bounce back from its first loss.

Getty Images / Peter Aiken

The Kansas City Chiefs made it all the way to week six as the last of the NFL’s unbeaten teams, but they finally met their match last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now they look to rebound against the Oakland Raiders, who are stuck in a four-game losing streak. A hive mind NFL fans predicts Chiefs will win their game Thursday night.

The previously mighty Chiefs offense couldn’t do much against Pittsburgh, putting up only 13 points in the win. The Raiders haven’t managed more than 17 points in any of their losses, their 45-point explosion against the New York Jets in week two an increasingly distant memory. If the Chiefs take care of business in Oakland, they are pretty much reestablished as the AFC frontrunners. If they drop their second straight game to the hapless Raiders? Well, then things get interesting.

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From their last meeting in December 2016.

Getty Images / Peter Aiken

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 Unanimous A.I. founder Louis 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. For instance, the swarm went a perfect 7-0 in its most recommended picks for a recent English Premier League slate.

Unanimous A.I.

The swarm feels good about Kansas City here, picking the Chiefs with high confidence and 84 percent brainpower behind the pick. There is some noticeable dissent in Oakland’s favor, but it’s still overwhelmingly the Chiefs.

Unanimous A.I.

The Chiefs also get the high confidence pick here, with pretty much all the dissenters just wanting to make the same choice but with low confidence. If Kansas City is going to win, it’s going to be by more than a field goal, basically.

The game kicks off 8:25 p.m. Eastern Thursday on CBS, the NFL Network, and Amazon Prime Video.

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