A picture shows St Peter's basilica at night on the eve of the conclave on March 11, 2013 at the Vatican. After Pope Francis' death on April 21, 2025 aged 88, AFP asked four AI chatbots – including OpenAI's ChatGPT and billionaire Elon Musk's Grok – for insights into the potential frontrunners for the new pope, with mixed results. — AFP
PARIS: Artificial intelligence was struggling on April 23 to forecast the outcome of the notoriously secretive and unpredictable process by which Catholic cardinals elect a new pope.
The April 21 death of Pope Francis triggered a period of mourning in the Catholic Church, but also kick-started the race for his successor, with everyone from Vatican insiders to bookmakers scrambling to guess who it will be.
