Swarms
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AI that picked Oscar winners could predict the next US president
There's strength -- and intelligence -- in numbers. Unanimous A.I., a Silicon Valley startup, has built a platform that taps into the collective knowledge of a group of people to form its own opinions, preferences and surprisingly accurate predictions. The software, dubbed UNU, successfully guessed last year's Oscar winners (11 out of 15 categories) and most recently predicted the winning horses in the Kentucky Derby. Now the "artificial swarm intelligence" is hosting its first AMA on Reddit, where it will respond to questions pertaining to the US presidential elections.
Santander Visitors Center infested by swarms of helpful robots (video)
Santander's Group City in Madrid is a big place; nine buildings sheltering 5,500 employees of one of the largest banks in the world. Guiding visitors around such a massive complex is a challenge, and what's the best way to solve any challenge? Robots, of course. Santander turned to YDreams, who we've seen before playing with augmented reality, but in this case produced something more tangible: a fleet of little red guys called "Interactive Guest Assistants" that use swarm interactions to guide fat cat bankers to their next conference -- and maybe to face off against the evil Maximilian in a harrowing battle at the end of the movie. There's also a giant virtual wall full of boring financial information presented in fancy ways, even an augmented reality map of the complex, all shown in a video after the break. It's the bots we like the best, so we'll be ordering a gaggle to guide our own visitors -- to their doom.