Opinião – The World Is a Ball: ChatGPT, the fashion robot, predicts the result of a football game, and fails

First of all, it’s important to point out that I’m a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to technology.

Due to reluctance or lack of interest, I am generally oblivious to events in this area that bring constant news and, I recognize, significant advances for society.

For me, after we started to have access to the internet (in the mid-1990s), used daily for a multitude of things (professional or personal), what actually made and still makes a difference in terms of application is WhatsApp, a tremendous communication facilitator.

I’ve had accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for years, but I don’t even remember why I opened them. I barely use these social networks, I don’t even know off the top of my head what my profile is on each one of them, much less the passwords, which I keep having to recover.

Anyway, I am, on the verge of 50 years old, a displaced person from the modern world in technology.

I make this introduction to comment on the so-called ChatGPT, about which I have read little –since, as explained, I have almost no interest in this area–, and it has been one of the subjects of the recent news.

Chatbot robot intended for virtual conversations, it is being presented as something revolutionary in AI (artificial intelligence), as they say it “interacts with humans in a realistic way”.

ChatGPT has become a fad, and its manufacturer (OpenAI) must be thrilled, envisioning the profit it can make with the paid version of the machine, which could be launched soon.

What does this “know-it-all robot” (in the definition of a site specialized in technology) have to do with football?

There was nothing, until a few days ago I received an email that claimed that Sportslens (a website that produces sports content and also offers betting) had used ChatGPT to predict the result of Manchester City vs Arsenal, in the FA Cup.

“Using data from old spreadsheets and [considerando] the current form of both teams, the AI ​​provides a unique match report”, advertised the text.

Curious, I read the release, in which the robot reported on the most important parts of that match, which would take place on Friday (27th), in Manchester, and saw the London team win by 2-1.

In the ChatGPT description, Nketiah opened the scoring for Arsenal, then Man City missed a penalty (beat by Mahrez and saved by Ramsdale) and reached a draw with De Bruyne. The goal for the visitors’ classification was again by Nketiah, who has been replacing the Brazilian Gabriel Jesus (injured).

Will be? I was in disbelief, however, if the result of the match was 2-1 for Arsenal, and there were events that were similar to those narrated by the chatbot, ChatGPT would gain more credit and be even more valued as a product.

My disbelief made sense. It was Manchester City, 1 to 0, goal by defender Aké. There was no goal from Nketiah or De Bruyne, there was no penalty, goalkeeper Ramsdale did not even play – that is, the AI ​​even made a mistake in the lineup.

It was, in a way, a relief. It suffices to reinforce what has always been known: no machine, no matter how innovative or sophisticated it may be, has or will have the ability to predict the future. That’s for fiction movies.

In real life, thankfully, football will continue to bring us unexpected emotions, full of unpredictability, one of the ingredients that make us love it so much.