AI Correctly Picked the 2026 Super Bowl Teams for Me. Will It Pick the Winner?
People will bet on anything. Which horse can run the fastest on a dirt road? On which number will a small white ball fall in a large spinning wheel in a Las Vegas casino? Who can eat the most hot dogs in 10 minutes?
Some of the the biggest bets arrive at Super Bowl Sundayand no matter what the sportsbooks say, two things are certain: there will be delighted winners and more than a few sore losers. Although it is impossible to predict the exact outcome of the match, AI Systems might have a unique ability to analyze accessible information and statistics, giving the average player a better understanding of what is possible on match day.
Here’s how I used four AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini And Claude AI — to try to predict the 2026 Super Bowl.
Guessing and gambling can be fun as a complement to sports, but if you’re doing it for money, be responsible. Also know that Generative AI makes mistakes and, like the results of sporting events, can be unpredictable in play and other businesses.
Learn more: I almost won my March Madness pool thanks to ChatGPT support suggestions
The teams: Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots
Deep in the final stretch of the NFL season last week, with just four teams remaining, I asked four AI chatbots to predict which teams would advance to the Super Bowl. Everyone predicted that the Seattle Seahawks would face the New England Patriots on February 8 – and everyone was right.
On Sunday, the Seahawks won 31-27 and the Patriots 10-7. This means they will face each other in the Super Bowl.
The chatbots were all incredibly detailed in their predictions about the timing and crucial moments of the big match, who would dominate in the first half, which players would put in standout performances, and what the memorable highlights of the match would be.
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Super Bowl LX winner predictions by Claude (left) and Copilot (right).
Super Bowl LX winner predictions by ChatGPT (left) and Gemini (right).
The draw: Seattle Seahawks
Three of the four AI systems I used predicted that the Seattle Seahawks would win the 2026 Super Bowl coin toss, pick heads over heads, and give the ball to the New England Patriots to start the game. Gemini was the outlier, saying the Patriots would win the toss, pick tails and give the ball to the Seahawks.
Notably, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot both made guesses, while Google Gemini and Claude AI relied on historical Super Bowl data to predict the outcome of the coin toss.
Super Bowl LX sweepstakes winner predictions from Copilot (top left), ChatGPT (top right), Gemini (bottom left), and Claude (bottom right).
The results: Seattle Seahawks win by 27 points
This is where the predictions started to get interesting: All four AI systems made the same predictions for who would win the 2026 Super Bowl and, what’s more, almost exactly the same predictions for the final score.
According to ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and Claude AI, the Seattle Seahawks will win against the New England Patriots either 27-23 or 27-24.
When asked to justify these strikingly similar predictions, all of the AI systems gave different answers.
Super Bowl LX winner predictions from Copilot (top left), ChatGPT (top right), Gemini (bottom left), and Claude (bottom right).
The Halftime Show: Cameos from Cardi B and J Balvin
Don’t bet on unexpected precipitation or wardrobe malfunctions during the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. Every AI system asked about the ins and outs of the performance pretty much agreed: Bad Bunny will bring his special brand of multilingual pop, hip-hop, Latin beats and lyrics to the show, despite the political discourse surrounding his historic appearance.
Cameos from special guests like Cardi B and J Balvin were also commonly predicted, as well as a generally tame execution, missing the more socially and politically charged nuances of previous performances by Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé.
The Good: National Anthem, Audience, Most Expensive Super Bowl Ad
It seems that the great artificial minds are thinking the same way again. Each AI system we tested generated very similar predictions for the length of the national anthem (around 2 minutes), the total audience for the game (between 118 million and 130 million), and the audience for the halftime show (around 130 million).
The AI systems differed slightly in their predictions as to which company would invest the most money on a Super Bowl ad in 2026, and were split between beer, gadgets, and the AI itself.
Claude predicted that an AI company would spend the most, at $8.5 million per 30 seconds of screen time. Gemini predicted that Anheuser-Busch would be the biggest spender overall, with an engagement of 2.5 minutes of total airtime, and that OpenAI would have the most screen time. ChatGPT predicted that Apple would go all-in on a Super Bowl ad and lose $14 million to $16 million on a 60-second spot, with Copilot agreeing.
Super Bowl Betting: Total Spending
Finally, the Super Bowl betting numbers were as wide and open as the space between the goal posts. Claude predicted that $9.2 billion would be spent on legal betting around the 2026 Super Bowl, while Gemini predicted a whopping $25 billion in betting.
ChatGPT and Copilot must have been prompted to speculate on the sums of money involved, but both gave much lower estimates, in the range of $2.5 billion to $6 billion. That can buy a lot of beer and wings.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, filed a lawsuit in April against OpenAI, alleging that it violated Ziff Davis’ copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.)
