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 in groups larger than 5 to 7 people. That’s because turn-taking dynamics fail, providing less and less “airtime” per person and less ability to respond to others. In fact, putting 30 people in a chat-room or video conference would not yield a “dialog” but a stream of individual monologues.
And yet, Mother Nature solved this, enabling very large groups to communicate so effectively they converge on solutions with extreme efficiency. Biologists call this Swarm Intelligence and it’s the reason why birds flock, fish school, and bees swarm - they are much smarter when thinking together than working alone.
So we invented Conversational Swarm Intelligence (or simply Hyperchat AI™ ). It is a new form of human communication that uses the power of Generative AI to divides large groups into a set of small networked subgroups, each sized for thoughtful conversation.
The magic is our patented AI Agents that seamlessly propagate insights across the full population in real-time. This combines the benefits of small-scale discussion with the collective intelligence benefits of large groups. The results have been remarkable.
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 developing 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 Thinkscape, and (iv) we asked CHATGPT to make an estimate. So, who won?
As shown above, using Thinkscape produced the most accurate results, beat 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 published study (conducted in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon) we compared three cases – (i) the IQ of the average individual on traditional surveys, (ii) the IQ using Wisdom of Crowd aggregation by taking the most popular survey answers, and (iii) using the conversational form of Swarm AI® technology built into Thinkscape.
As shown above, the average participant in this study scored an individual IQ of 100 (the 50th percentile). When using Thinkscape, the groups were significantly smarter, averaging an effective IQ of 128 (97th percentile). Also, not a single participant outperformed their group’s IQ when using Thinkscape (full study here).
But do people like using Thinkscape? To explore this, another study was conducted with researchers at Carnegie Mellon, this time requiring groups of 75 people to brainstorm together on a standard test called an Alternative Use Task (AUT).
In the study, groups of 75 people were required to brainstorm in two ways: (i) using standard chat environment similar to Microsoft Teams and Google Chat, and (b) using the Thinkscape platform which divided the groups of 75 into 15 subgroups connected together by our patented AI Agents called "Conversational Surrogates.”
As you can see in the results below, participants significantly preferred collaborating, communicating, and deliberating using Thinkscape and CSI. They reported feeling more heard, feeling more collaborative, feeling buy-in, and reaching better answers.
For More Details on the science behind Thinkscape, please see the Keynote Address that Dr. Rosenberg delivered at Collective Intelligence 2024 in the video below:
Want to learn more?