Science

Who Will Win Saints vs. Panthers? A.I. Predicts Drew Brees vs. Cam Newton Match-Up

A hive-mind of NFL experts has made its prediction for this Week 15 match-up.

by T.E. Andrews
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 18.0px Georgia} Dan Anderson/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire

The Saints are now 11-2 and have now clinched the NFC South. Of their three remaining games, two come against the once-promising-but-ultimately-disappointing Panthers. At 6-7, the Panthers once looked like contenders, but have now fallen by the wayside, having taken five (!!!!!) consecutive losses to the chin. What happened?

In Week 9, the Panthers were 6-2 and looked like a reliable playoff team. Since then, Carolina has taken more Ls than Pete Davidson, Kanye West, and Kevin Hart combined. Not a good look.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys’ defense proved that the Saints aren’t immaculate in Week 13, limiting New Orleans to a paltry 10 points, but the Saints responded last weekend by doubling up the Bucs, 28-14. Somehow, the Panthers still have a shot at making the playoffs, even if we wouldn’t bet our 401k on it.

According to “Riverboat” Ron Rivera, Carolina has a five percent chance of making the playoffs. Do we believe? Absolutely not. Oh no you don’t, Lloyd Christmas. Bah humbug. Saints 27, Panthers 21 is my prediction, but how does a hive-mind of NFL experts see this game ending up?

To predict the result of this Week 15 match-up, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence. A “swarm” of 30 NFL enthusiasts worked together as a hive mind to make their prediction. As you can see in the animation below, each participant controlled a golden magnet and used it to drag the puck toward the result they thought was the most likely outcome. This is where it gets interesting: As a user sees the puck move toward a particular decision, it triggers a psychological response. They might readjust their thinking as the group builds toward a consensus. It’s an artificial intelligence, produced by human brains, working together as a swarm.

As the swarm replay you see above shows, the hive mind of 30 NFL experts has high confidence that the New Orleans Saints will win against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

The Saints play at the Panthers at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Sunday on ESPN.

Here’s how Unanimous A.I. has predicted previous NFL games this season.

Unanimous A.I. has made some scarily accurate predictions in the past using swarm intelligence, as our this article explains. For instance, the swarm picked this year’s Oscar winners with 94 percent accuracy. Here’s Unanimous A.I. founder Louis Rosenberg explaining swarm intelligence at a recent TEDx Talk:

Want to join the hive mind that picks NFL matches every week? Sign up to participate in future predictions.

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