• Question: Does AI work kind of like a hive mind?

    Asked by cast520ates on 4 Mar 2025. This question was also asked by Mumina.
    • Photo: Mark Basham

      Mark Basham answered on 4 Mar 2025:

      It can, there are lots of different forms of AI and each one has strengths and weaknesses. One of my favourite types are a group called swarm optimisation, which is where you try to get to the best answer to a problem by lots of different things all trying to do it, and sharing their achievements. Many of these are based on Biology, and are called things like Genetic Algorithms, or Artificial Immune Systems.

    • Photo: Kate Whyles

      Kate Whyles answered on 10 Apr 2025:

      While AI systems can communicate and share data, they function independently based on their programming and training. Each AI operates based on its own algorithms, datasets, and objectives, so there isn’t a unified sense of awareness or collective intelligence like a hive mind. They can collaborate and be connected, but they do not share a singular thought process or consciousness.

    • Photo: Neil Barnby

      Neil Barnby answered on 22 Apr 2025:

      Although it could, currently it doesn’t. AI systems tend to work independently on specific tasks.

    • Photo: Melissa Upjohn

      Melissa Upjohn answered on 8 Jul 2025:

      AI can be really useful in gathering lots of information together from many different sources very quickly so in some ways it can act like a hive mind. It’s important to remember that AI relies on the source information being accurate, so you need to think critically about where the information is coming from and whether it’s trustworthy. In science, we rely on ‘peer review’ sources, which means that before a piece of research is published other specialists in the same topic check whether it’s accurate, credible and whether the interpretation of the results makes sense.

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