Can AI beat a goldfish at calling the World Cup?
Rest of World Indranil Ghosh
Five AI language models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity) predicted World Cup matches with 50-60% accuracy, while Swimbappé the goldfish achieved 80% accuracy by swimming toward flags representing different outcomes. The AI models correctly identified Spain, France, England, and Argentina as semifinalists before the tournament but stumbled on individual match predictions, missing Brazil's elimination by Norway and Germany's loss to Paraguay. Animal predictors like Swimbappé and the hippo Moo Deng have outperformed the AI systems, continuing a tradition established by Paul the Octopus in 2010.
Why it matters
As chatbots compete to forecast the tournament, an unlikely rival from a Toronto fish tank continues to outperform them.
