Agent K delivers his cynical observation in Men in Black with the weight of truth, not because it is absolute, but because history has often made it seem so. “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it.”
Mobs that rage. Crowds that destroy. Chaos that erupts from the many, undoing the order of the few. But like many truths, this one is incomplete, a fragment of a larger, more complex story.
Now imagine instead a different kind of crowd—not driven by fear or frenzy, but by connection. A crowd that thinks, breathes, and evolves as one. This is not fantasy; it is the reality emerging from new research by Unanimous AI. In the right conditions, humans connected through technology can rise above their limitations, transforming into something extraordinary. Not a chaotic mob but a coherent, collective mind—a superorganism capable of brilliance no single individual could achieve alone.
I, human
The evidence defies the conventional narrative of human groups as dangerous and unpredictable. Instead, it invites us to reconsider what collective intelligence can mean. Real-time feedback systems, designed to mimic the natural choreography of swarms, have shown that human groups can outperform even the brightest individuals. These systems amplify intelligence, refining raw human thought into something sharper, something more. If a single mind is smart, then a swarm, working in harmony, can be genius.
One need only look to a recent experiment rooted in the landscape of Australian political debate to see this in action. Unanimous AI harnessed “swarm intelligence” to navigate a thorny debate about the impact of banning social media for children under sixteen. What emerged wasn’t chaos, but clarity—a collective mind deliberating and converging on insights that no single participant could have conceived alone.
It is, perhaps, a glimpse of what we could become: not fragmented individuals struggling against the tide, but a species learning to think together, to move together, to thrive together. In this shimmering vision of the future, humanity is not eclipsed by the machines it has built but elevated by them, discovering in connection the key to its own evolution.
105 strangers in America, not a gathering of leaders or experts, but a mosaic of everyday people, were bound by a single query: Should Australia ban social media for children under 16? Is it a net positive or net negative for their futures—and why?
For ten minutes, they moved as one—not in unison, but in the dynamic interplay of argument and insight, contradiction and consensus. Each voice contributed a fragment of thought, a sliver of perspective, weaving a web of 530 comments that danced between hope and caution, freedom and protection.
Swarm Intelligence
As they deliberated, the system pulsed with their conviction and sentiment, mapping the currents of their beliefs like an invisible tide. The collective organism they formed did not seek a simplistic answer but instead illuminated the contours of the question itself, revealing truths no individual could uncover alone. This was not mere conversation. It was something older and more primal, something that echoed the way flocks and schools survive: a swarm intelligence, vibrant and alive, finding its way forward.
Speaking to Unprompted earlier today, Unanimous AI founder and CEO Louis Rosenberg said, “We had groups of randomly selected people take IQ tests and compared their scores three different ways. First, we looked at individual performance when they took IQ tests alone. Then we looked at 'crowd' performance when we took the most popular answer for each question across groups of 35 people. And finally we had groups of 35 people take the tests together in Thinkscape, an AI platform that enables large groups to deliberate as a real-time Swarm Intelligence. “
According to Rosenberg, the average individual scored 100, which is how IQ tests are designed. Taking the most popular answer (think of it as the Wisdom of Crowds) boosted the IQ to 114, which is the 80th percentile.
“When deliberating as a Swarm Intelligence in Thinkscape, the groups averaged an IQ of 128, which is the 97th percentile and considered gifted.”
The swarm outperformed every individual in the group, says Rosenburg. Just as important; together, we are smarter than we are alone.
It’s a demonstration of the power of the hive mind.
Groups of randomly selected people deliberating together on any topic can significantly amplify their collective intelligence. he says.
“And as groups get larger, the intelligence amplification increases."
The largest groups Rosenberg and his team have brought together this way is about 400 people but he says, in theory the technology can can scale to thousands or even millions – in real time.
“We are confident this can enable large very human groups to form a Collective Superintelligence.”
“That has been my research goal for the last decade because I believe it is a much safer path to achieving superintelligence than using a pure AI. I am certain we can use AI to connect people together into real-time super-intelligent systems that keeps human values, morals, interests, and sensibilities deeply ingrained in the process.”
The genius of the method is that it doesn’t demand the perfection of a savant or the iron grip of a leader. Instead, it celebrates the ancient truth that together, we are more than the sum of our parts. Swarm Intelligence, a phenomenon born in the natural choreography of birds, bees, and fish, is now being realized in human systems, a shimmering glimpse of what we might yet become.
A natural order
The idea is simple yet profound. Nature has long shown us that collective behavior—whether it is birds flocking to avoid a predator or ants engineering a bridge of bodies—creates emergent intelligence far greater than any individual effort. Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and Unanimous AI are now asking: What if humans could mimic this ability? Their answer revealed in Towards Collective Superintelligence: Amplifying Group IQ using Conversational Swarms describes a framework where technology amplifies collective wisdom.
Imagine a gathering of thirty-five people, strangers in a digital agora. Each is part of a small subgroup, a constellation in a network, deliberating on complex problems. These groups are connected through AI agents, silent interpreters that weave together insights, strengthen arguments, and pass them along like whispers in the wind. The result? A collective IQ that soars far beyond that of any individual.
Conventional Swarm Intelligence (CSI) is like a well-tuned orchestra, balancing contributions. It discourages dominance, amplifies reason, and creates harmony out of discord. Even as disagreements rage, the system learns, refines, and converges on solutions that bear the mark of deep thought rather than shallow consensus.
To observe it in action is to watch evolution unfold in real time. In one trial, as participants debated a political topic, their initial preference wavered like the early steps of a foal. Yet, within minutes, arguments accumulated, winnowing weak ideas and bolstering strong ones. The collective decision emerged not as a dictate but as an organic truth, born of many minds moving as one.
There is a beauty here that transcends the technical. Like the lateral lines in fish schools that ripple with unseen messages, the flow of insight within a CSI network is both fragile and resilient. It invites us to dream of a future where our machines amplify not our isolation, but our interconnectedness.
But we must also tread carefully. A tool that enhances collective intelligence could, in less careful hands, become a mechanism of control. What happens when the dance is choreographed not by shared values but by those who seek to manipulate the swarm for their gain? How do we ensure that the harmony remains authentic, the outcomes equitable?
Perhaps the answer lies in remembering that we are already part of countless swarms. Families, communities, nations—all are networks of minds that share, collide, and grow together. What CSI offers is not a replacement but a mirror, a way to reflect back to us the latent power of our collective spirit.
Bonobos, not chimps
In the shimmering possibilities of Swarm Intelligence, we might see a future where collaboration triumphs over competition, where the many surpass the few, and where our shared humanity finds its most profound expression.
Perhaps the greatest lesson of swarm intelligence is not its capacity for problem-solving but its redefinition of power. In the swarm, power does not belong to the loudest voice or the most charismatic leader. It belongs to the space between—to the whispered connections that bind us all.
In an era that often feels defined by division, this quiet revolution offers a glimpse of another path. One where our differences become strengths, not weaknesses, and where we rediscover the power of unity—not as conformity but as a celebration of diversity woven into a single, shimmering whole.
The hive is whispering to us. The question is whether we are ready to listen.
