Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Collective intelligence has existed for at least as long as humans have. Tribes of hunter-gatherers, nations, and modern corporations all act collectively with varying degrees of intelligence. But this ancient phenomenon is now occurring in dramatically new forms. For example:
  • Google uses the knowledge millions of people have stored in the World Wide Web to provide remarkably useful answers to users' questions
  • Wikipedia motivates thousands of volunteers around the world to create the world's largest encyclopedia
  • Innocentive lets companies easily tap the talents of the global scientific community for innovative solutions to tough R&D problems
With new communication technologies-especially the Internet-huge numbers of people all over the planet can now work together in ways that were never before possible in the history of humanity. It is thus more important than ever for us to understand collective intelligence at a deep level so we can create and take advantage of these new possibilities.That is the goal of the newly-named MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.One way of framing the basic research question is:
How can people and computers be connected so that-collectively-they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before?
With its combination of expertise in computer science, brain sciences, and management, MIT is uniquely suited to address this question. To take advantage of these diverse capabilities, the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence involves faculty from many parts of MIT: Sloan School of Management, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Media Laboratory, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Leadership Center.

To learn more, see the Research Projects page.