Week two of the 2014 NFL season wrapped up last night with a last second field goal that gave the Philadelphia Eagles the win over the Indianapolis Colts in a game that Cortana predicted the Eagles to win.
An artificial intelligence program with a pretty voice picking the winners of football games may not be of much interest to a lot of techies who are notoriously not jocks, but I don’t care. I find it fascinating so I’m going to continue writing about it.
In week one, Microsoft’s Cortana picked ten out of the sixteen winners – not a bad record considering how many upsets and surprises there were.
Week two in the NFL saw just as many surprises (Saints fall to the Bears!?!) and yet, Cortans picked ten out of sixteen again.
She missed on the Chargers vs. Seahawks (a lot of humans missed that one), picked the Titans over the Cowboys and the Steelers over the Ravens (never a good idea to bet against the Ravens) and like just about everybody else who doesn’t live in the Chicago area she picked the 49ers to win in their brand new stadium opener.
Perhaps now someone should ask Cortana if she thinks Ray Rice will ever return to the NFL…or maybe not.
