[orthecreedence]

From my knowledge, ants operate with no leadership, completely self-organizing. The term "queen" is inaccurate. The queen really just lays eggs; she does not act as a leader. The true brilliance of ants comes from the fact that they can literally think as a group, kind of like neurons. Each one on its own is essentially worthless, but in a communicating, non-hierarchical group, the whole becomes much more than the sum of the parts.

I do know that most communication is done via chemical exchange between individuals, but as far the "algorithms" the ants use, I don't know much about them. I'm sure it has been fine-tuned over millions of years though ;).