The big news right now — the New England Patriots have beaten the Seattle Seahawks during the 2015 Super Bowl. But in even bigger news, Cortana predicted the outcome of the game long before it even began.
Microsoft’s digital assistant known as Cortana, currently available on Windows Phone and soon on Windows 10, has been making predictions for quite some time now. Cortana, which utilizes predictions using Bing’s search service, can predict outcomes of sporting or entertainment events.
When asked who would win the big game, which took place today, Cortana revealed the Patriots would win, before the big game even started. Either she can time travel, or her prediction engine is amazingly spot-on.
Cortana was right all along #SuperBowlXLIX pic.twitter.com/1GSULdILmX
— Joe (@astroXP) February 2, 2015
Looks like Cortana woke up and realized that magic sometimes trumps statistical models! 🙂 #gohawks @sportsradiokjr pic.twitter.com/l7nbutPoAm
— joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) January 30, 2015
The funny thing is, when Cortana was asked the same question early last week, her response was this: “It’s hard to say, but if I were a bettin’ AI [artificial intelligence], I wouldn’t put my money on the Seattle Seahawks right now.” It should come as no surprise, given that Cortana accurately predicted the Germany World Cup victory over Argentina several months ago.
Besides her witty personality and prediction abilities, Cortana packs some pretty practical features that help people get through daily activities. Of particular note is Cortana’s ‘remind me’ and ‘people-based reminder’ features. Microsoft decided to focus on these types of features rather than the more gimmicky ones that the competition like to brag about, as these features are the ones that people will really come to appreciate with a digital personal assistant in the long run.
Cortana is set to arrive on the desktop with the launch of Windows 10 later this year.
