There are many information-processing problems that can only be solved by the joint action of large communities of computers each running a sophisticated machine learning algorithm, where those algorithms are not subject to centralized, global control. Examples are routing of air traffic, control of swarms of spacecraft, routing of packets across the internet, and communication between the multiple processors in a modern computer. There are also many instances of natural systems that address such problems.
Examples here are ecosystems, economies, the organelles within a living cell.
There is no centralized communication among agents. There is a well-specified global objective, and we are confronted with the inverse problem of how to configure the system to achieve that objective. It is expected that as it matures and draws upon other disciplines related to COINs, this research will greatly expand the range of tasks addressable by human engineers. Moreover, in addition to drawing on them, such a fully developed science of COIN design may provide insight into other already established scientific fields, such as economics, game theory, and population biology. Recent publications on Collective Intelligence are available on-line.