Modern power systems serve as a critical component of new energy architectures and are essential carriers for achieving the dual carbon goals. With the increasing penetration of renewable energy and the widespread use of various flexible, uncertain, distributed energy resources, the variety of generation and load types in power systems continues to expand, resulting in greater operational complexity and control challenges. Collective intelligence, identified as one of the key research directions in China's next generation artificial intelligence development plan, can leverage multi-agent cooperative optimization to support coordinated optimization and control in modern power systems. This paper begins with a brief overview of collective intelligence technologies. The current state of key research scenarios in modern power systems is then analyzed, with a focus on the emerging features and challenges encountered in these environments. Subsequently, the application potential of collective intelligence in modern power systems is summarized, along with a review of relevant research efforts in this domain. Finally, future research directions are discussed, highlighting advanced technologies that are expected to further enhance the integration of collective intelligence into modern power system control and optimization.