Science

Who Will Win Cleveland Browns vs. Chicago Bears? A.I. Predicts

This is Cleveland's last best shot to avoid 0-16.

Getty Images / Leon Halip

The Cleveland Browns are two losses away from becoming the second team to finish 0-16. The Chicago Bears are absolutely putrid enough to be the team that stops that from happening. A hive mind of about 30 NFL fans predicts the Bears will win Sunday.

It feels like years ago now, but the Cleveland Browns started this season with something resembling promise. They were still awful, mind you, but they kept games close enough to make one thing their young talent could grow into something given time. But defeats piled up, the front office experienced turmoil and turnover, and now the Browns are in very real danger of finishing the season 0-16, joining the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only teams to accomplish that ignominious feat. The Chicago Bears are a more normal kind of bad, by contrast, but if anyone can lose to Cleveland, it’s them. Also, the Browns are playing the 11-3 Pittsburgh Steelers next week. This is the game to get the victory, Cleveland.

From their last game in 2013.

Getty Images / Matt Sullivan

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. About 30 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 an English Premier League slate earlier this season.

Unanimous A.I.

The swarm predicts the Bears will win, though only with low confidence and 83 percent brainpower.

Unanimous A.I.

The hive mind predicts the Bears will win by four to six points, with 75 percent brainpower behind that pick. The Vegas line favors the Browns by seven.

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

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