Artificial intelligence tools found it challenging due to the Vatican’s secrecy, offering inconsistent observations about potential papal candidates such as Parolin and Tagle, which made accurate forecasts almost unattainable.
Artificial intelligence (
AI
On Wednesday, they were grappling with difficulties in predicting the result of the famously secret and capricious procedure through which Catholic cardinals choose a new pope.
The death on April 21
Pope Francis
sparked a time of grief within the Catholic Church, yet simultaneously ignited the competition to find his replacement, with both Vatican insiders and bookmakers alike rushing to predict who would take over.
The Agence France-Presse queried four AI chatbots, which included one from OpenAI, about various topics.
ChatGPT
and billionaire
Elon Musk
‘Grok – for glimpses of the possible frontrunners, yielding inconsistent outcomes.
Grok and
Google
Gemini mentioned that their leading candidate is Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who has been the second-highest official at the Vatican throughout most of Pope Francis’s time as pope.
“According to recent analyses and key debates, Cardinal Pietro Parolin stands out as a formidable candidate,” stated Gemini.
However, it also included about eight more alternatives — with ChatGPT’s top choice among them.
“If I had to make a prediction based on current trends, influence, and the direction the Church has taken under Pope Francis, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle stands out as the most likely candidate,” Open AI’s ChatGPT said.
Tagle is at the forefront of Asia’s bid for the papacy and, similar to Francis, is regarded as a prominent champion for the underprivileged, immigrants, and marginalized communities.
However, one commonality among the chatbot replies was noticeable.
Each highlighted the extreme difficulty in predicting the result.
“It’s crucial to recognize that although AI can examine data and spot trends, forecasting the election of the next Pope includes elements that surpass mere data analysis,” explained Gemini.
This encompasses the cardinals’ theological positions, their age, experience level, along with the confidentiality shrouding the voting process.
ChatGPT emphasized that its guess wasn’t “a prediction in the crystal ball sense,” but more like “this could be something for the cardinals to think about.”
In the meantime, French firm Mistral AI chose not to participate in the speculation whatsoever.
“I am unable to forecast or conjecture about who the subsequent Pope will be,” it stated.
Mistral provided a single recommendation: “To get the latest and most precise details, I suggest keeping an eye on trustworthy news outlets.”
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