Artificial Intelligence Just Predicted Which Country Will Win the World Cup

Researchers have used artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict that Spain is the most likely 2018 World Cup winner. A number of factors were analysed to determine the outcome, including FIFA rankings, national population, gross domestic product, bookmakers' odds, the number of national team players who play together in a club, players' average age, and the number of times they've won the Champions League. According to the AI prediction, Spain is the most likely winner by a margin of almost 20 percent. However, the researchers added that Germany would be likely to beat Spain if given the chance, but the structure of the tournament will probably not allow for that. "Spain is slightly favoured over Germany, mainly due to the fact that Germany has a comparatively high chance to drop out in the round-of-sixteen," says Andreas Groll, of Technical University of Dortmund.