AI Predicted the 2026 Super Bowl Winner. Here's What Else It Got Right

People will gamble on anything. Which horse can run around a dirt track fastest? Who can eat the most hot dogs in 10 minutes? What number will a little white ball fall on in a big spinning wheel in a Vegas casino? 

Some of the biggest bets happen on Super Bowl Sunday, and no matter what the sports bookies say, two things are certain: There are elated winners and more than a few sore losers. While it would have been impossible to predict the exact outcome of the game, AI systems have a unique ability to parse information and statistics, giving the average Joe a better grasp of what's possible on game day.

I used four AI chatbots -- ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and Claude AI -- to try to predict the 2026 Super Bowl. Here's how they did.

(Guessing and gambling can be fun as an adjunct to sports, but if you're doing it for money, please be responsible. Also, be aware that generative AI makes mistakes and, like the outcomes of sporting events, can be unpredictable in gambling and other ventures.)

Read more: I Almost Won My March Madness Pool Thanks to ChatGPT's Bracket Suggestions

The big game: All four AI chatbots picked Seattle Seahawks

Deep into the latter part of the NFL season, when only four teams were left, I asked four AI chatbots to predict which two teams would make it to the Super Bowl. All predicted the Seattle Seahawks would play the New England Patriots on Feb. 8 -- and all were correct.

All four AI systems also made the same predictions for who would win the 2026 Super Bowl and, what's more, almost exactly the same predictions for the end score. According to ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini and Claude AI, the Seattle Seahawks would win against the New England Patriots, either 27-23 or 27-24. (The Madden NFL video game also completed a Super Bowl simulation ahead of the game and agreed with the chatbots, saying the Seahawks would win, though with a slightly different scoreline of 23-20.)

The AI tools were close with the Seahawks' points -- the team scored 29, not 27, points -- but not so close for the Patriots' points, with the team only getting 13 on the board. 

When asked to generate the reasoning behind their startlingly similar predictions, all the AI systems gave different answers:

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The coin toss: Three out of four chatbots got it wrong

Three out of four of the AI systems I used predicted that the Seattle Seahawks would win the coin toss in the 2026 Super Bowl, choose tails over heads and give the ball to the New England Patriots to kick off the game. 

Gemini was the outlier, and the only chatbot that got it right: It correctly predicted that the Patriots would win the coin toss, choose tails and give the ball to the Seahawks -- which is what happened on Sunday.

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. 

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The halftime show: Only one cameo predicted correctly; set list predictions on point

All the AI systems queried about the ins and outs of the performance pretty much agreed: Bad Bunny would bring his special brand of multilingual pop, hip-hop, Latin beats and lyrics to the show, despite political discourse around his history-making appearance.

Cameos by 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 undertones of previous performances by Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé.

The chatbots only got Cardi B right. Some of the many other cameos included Pedro Pascal, Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin, Karol G, Jessica Alba, Young Miko, David Grutman and Alix Earle. (None of them predicted a real wedding would happen during the halftime show.)

For predictions on Bad Bunny's setlist, all four chatbots guessed Tití Me Preguntó correctly, but all were wrong about Me Porto Bonito and I Like It. Three of the bots correctly guessed Baile Inolvidable but were wrong about Dákiti. Lastly, two chatbots correctly predicted El Apagón, NuevaYol and Yo Perreo Sola.

The extras: National anthem, viewership, most expensive Super Bowl ad

It seems that great artificial minds think alike: Every AI system I tested generated very similar predictions for the length of the national anthem performance, at about 2 minutes. The anthem performance on Sunday by Charlie Puth lasted 1 minute, 53 seconds.

The chatbots also predicted that total viewership for the game would be between 118 million and 130 million, and halftime show viewership at about 130 million. Viewership stats aren't out yet, so stay tuned. 

The AI systems differed slightly in their predictions about which company would plonk down the most cash for a Super Bowl commercial in 2026, and were split among beer, gadgets and 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 a commitment of 2.5 minutes of total airtime, and that OpenAI would spend the most on screen time with an AI-related ad. ChatGPT predicted Apple would go all in on a Super Bowl ad and drop $14 million to $16 million on a 60-second spot, with Copilot in agreement.

Ad-spending stats aren't available yet either.

Super Bowl betting: Total spend

Finally, the figures on Super Bowl betting were just as broad and open as the space between goal posts. Claude predicted $9.2 billion would be spent on legal betting around the 2026 Super Bowl, while Gemini predicted a whopping $25 billion in bets. ChatGPT and Copilot had to be prompted to speculate on the mounds of money in play, 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.

Betting figures are not yet available.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)