Artificial intelligence (AI) instead of octopuses: When making predictions for the current FIFA World Cup, many fans are turning to AI instead of animal oracles. However, the forecasts for these so-called chatbots vary. ChatGTP from the company OpenAI and Claude from Anthropic They predict that Spain will win the World Cup, while Le Chat from the French company Mistral bets on France, and the Chinese programs Deepseek and Qwen see Argentina as the favorite.
It remains to be seen whether any of the AI programs will be able to surpass Paul the octopus, who became legendary for his accurate predictions. During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, this mollusk from the Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen correctly predicted the outcome of all of the matches. Germany grabbing boxes of food with flags with their tentacles, including their elimination against the eventual champion, Spain, in the semi-finals, thus achieving worldwide fame.
No other animal oracle has matched Paul’s accuracy since. However, animal-based football predictions remain popular.
Paul 2.0 has an embedded chip
Even in the current World Cup which is celebrated in the United States, Mexico and Canada, animals of all kinds are once again being used as clairvoyants: in Mexico, for example, elephants and gorillas are used, while in Germany, an anteater from the Münster Zoo and macaws from the Leipzig Zoo have been recruited as soccer experts.
However, a new version of Paul only superficially resembles the legend. The octopus replica, which appears on the RTL II television channel, has an artificial intelligence chip implanted. “Paul 2.0” is off to a good start: For the World Cup opener on Thursday, he correctly predicted host Mexico’s victory against South Africa.
