Artificial Intelligence Picks NFL Games

NEW YORK, NY, October 29, 2010 (Press-News.org) It's 2010, the decade of the iPhone, Android and Google unmanned cars. Are modern-day computers advanced enough to predict NFL games with greater certainty than a human?

We'll use two test subjects, one called "Computer" and the other called "Human". Computer will be GameLine360.com, one of the most advanced online computer models available for NFL picks and NFL rankings. Human will be a consensus of the mainstream opinion-based power rankings.

In our test, we'll look at a few of the high probability games over the past few weeks with significant differences between the Computer rankings and Human rankings and examine the results.

NFL Week 3 - Atlanta at New Orleans: Human ranks Atlanta #11 and New Orleans #1 due to New Orleans' super bowl win the year before. Computer calculates opponent-adjusted statistics and ranks Atlanta #12 and New Orleans #23. Outcome: Atlanta beats New Orleans at home.
Computer 1 and Human 0.

NFL Week 6 - Atlanta at Philadelphia: Computer ranks Atlanta #22 and Philadelphia #11 due to Philadelphia's superior statistics after recursively adjusting for past opponent strength. Human ranks Atlanta #4 and Philadelphia #14 due to Atlanta's win/loss record and Atlanta beating New Orleans, a team whom Human ranks as #8 and Computer ranks as #23. Outcome: Philadelphia crushes Atlanta.
Computer 2 and Human 0.

NFL Week 7 - New England at San Diego: Computer ranks San Diego #2 and New England #12. Human ranks New England #3 and San Diego #20 due to New England's win/loss record and Tom Brady's all-star branding. Outcome: New England beats San Diego; although, taking a microscopic look at the game reveals a much different result.
Computer 2 and Human 1.

NFL Week 7 - Washington at Chicago: Human ranks Washington #16 and Chicago #12 due to Chicago's win/loss record and central division lead. Computer ranks Washington #9 and Chicago #16 due to Washington's superior opponent-adjusted statistics. Computer also considers momentum-based statistics for the last 4 games and has Washington ranked as #5 and Chicago as #21. Computer calculates how each team played at home and on the road and ranks Washington #9 and Chicago #26. Computer also looks at weather and wind speed, causing higher uncertainty in some cases and less passing scores. Outcome: Washington beats Chicago at home.
Computer 3 and Human 1.

NFL Week 7 - Cleveland at New Orleans: Computer ranks Cleveland #27 and New Orleans #23. Human ranks Cleveland #29 and New Orleans #6, still likely due to New Orleans super bowl win the year before. In this case, both Computer and Human predict a New Orleans victory; although, Computer expects a closer game. Outcome: Cleveland beats New Orleans at home.

The Computer outperformed the Human in most of the games mentioned above; although, it did have a few imperfections. Even with many key injuries, today's computer intelligence does appear to have an edge over a human.

In conclusion, sports predictions will always be far from perfect, but computer intelligence is making significant advances, reaching predictions rarely possible in the past.

Website: http://www.gameline360.com