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Blake, Wm. St. Matthew. 1799.

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AI could make crowdsourcing obsolete by efficiently screening out bad ideas, a new study suggests.

Crowdsourcing contests are when someone posts a task (such as a website design or a new logo) on a platform and pledges a monetary reward for a winning solution.

Researchers developed an AI model trained on a data set of 21 of these contests, which included 4,191 ideas. They found that the model was able to anticipate which idea would win, effectively screening out bad ideas.

Specifically, the AI screened out 44% of the 4,191 ideas. 14% of winning ideas were eliminated, the researchers noted, but they say a better model using a two-step approach would prevent any winners from being eliminated.

Johann Füller, researcher: “In the selection phase, AI can replace humans in the screening and narrowing of those ideas. But in the long run, if automation is used properly, it can even eliminate the need for human idea generators and make crowdsourcing itself obsolete.”