An artificial intelligence can predict the future as well as groups of people for events like political elections or economic trends. People are notoriously bad at predicting the future, at least on an individual level. But websites called prediction markets, where people can bet on the outcome of future events, have demonstrated that the wisdom of crowds leads to better guesses. The average, crowdsourced predictions, which take into account many people's forecasts, tend to be…

According to a 2009 study, U.S. adults look at weather forecasts nearly 300 billion times a year. Reliable forecasts can predict hazardous weather―such as blizzards, hurricanes, and flash floods―as early as 9–10 days before the event. Estimates value these forecasts at $31.5 billion per year. Although weather prediction keeps improving year to year for shorter-term forecasts, forecast skill decreases in the 2-week to 2-month time frame. These longer-timescale forecasts can play a critical role for many sectors, including water conservation, energy demand, and disaster preparedness.