The Science Behind Thinkscape
Inspired by Natural Systems
Many minds are better than one. Research shows collective intelligence grows with group size. Research also shows that conversational deliberation is critical for groups to surface ideas, debate options, and solve complex problems. If only we could combine the power of collective intelligence with conversation.
Unfortunately, conversations degrade with groups larger than 7 to 10. That’s because turn-taking dynamics fall apart, providing less “airtime” per person and less ability to respond to others. In fact, putting 40 people in a chat-room or video conference would not yield a “dialog” but a stream of individual remarks.
And yet, Mother Nature has solved this problem, enabling large groups to communicate so effectively they converge on rapid solutions with extreme efficiency. Biologists call this Swarm Intelligence and it’s the reason why birds flock, fish school, and bees swarm - they are significantly smarter when thinking together than alone.
So we invented Conversational Swarm Intelligence (CSI), a new AI technology that divides large populations into small networked subgroups, each sized for thoughtful conversation. The magic is our patented use of AI Agents to propagate insights across the full group in real-time. This combines the benefits of small-scale discourse with the collective intelligence benefits of large populations.
Yes, it’s a bold concept – enabling hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people to hold unified conversations that converge on insightful solutions and amplify collective intelligence. At Unanimous AI, we’ve been pursuing this for years, making many breakthroughs along the way. We’ve now packaged our innovations into Thinkscape, a remarkable platform that brings these capabilities to teams around the world.
Consider this Estimation Experiment – we asked 240 people to estimate the number of gumballs in a jar. This is a classic test of collective intelligence. In our recently published study we compared four methods: (i) the average individual estimate, (ii) the mean of 240 surveys (also called the Wisdom of Crowds), (iii) 240 people using AI-powered Thinkscape, and (iv) we asked CHATGPT to make an estimate. So, who won?
As shown above, Thinkscape produced the most accurate results, outperforming the average individual by 77% and the Wisdom of Crowds by 50%. At the same, Thinkscape provided a wealth of qualitative insights, documenting the strategies used to reach the solution. And most remarkable – the process in Thinkscape took less than five minutes!
Now, consider this IQ experiment – we asked groups of 35 people to take IQ tests, either through a traditional survey or by forming a collective intelligence in Thinkscape. As shown in this recently published study, we compared three cases – the IQ of the average individual on the survey, the Wisdom of Crowd by taking the most popular survey answers and finally the real-time deliberation in Thinkscape.
As shown above, the average individual scored an IQ of 100 (50th percentile) when administering an IQ test to a random population. Thinkscape greatly amplified the intelligence of this group, achieving an IQ of 128 (97th percentile). In addition, not a single participant in the study achieved an individual IQ score as high as the collective intelligence formed in Thinkscape (see full study here).
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