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swarm intelligence

British  

noun

  1. the collective behaviour of a group of animals, esp social insects such as ants, bees, and termites, that are each following very basic rules

  2. an artificial-intelligence approach to problem solving using algorithms based on the self-organized collective behaviour of social insects

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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That research earned the engineers a patent in April 2024—one of hundreds granted in recent years to Chinese defense companies and universities affiliated with the military for advances in swarm intelligence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

Since the start of 2022, Chinese defense contractors, military institutes and military-linked universities have published at least 930 patent filings related to swarm intelligence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

Online activism also risks stripping agency from the communities it means to help while "Western advocates and the swarm intelligence of online users dominate the narrative".

From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2023

Indeed, synthetic swarm intelligence is already with us.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 10, 2018

The zombies in #wwz exhibit swarm intelligence because that is what natural selection would do. #outreach @carlzimmer http://t.co/lU7OhAaEFz Fungi aren’t the only zombie voodoo masters.

From Scientific American ● Jul. 8, 2013

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