Listen to this blog with one of our AI generated voices.
Over the last few weeks of March Madness, Précis has been running a “Man vs. Machine” experiment, pitting the NCAA Men’s Basketball bracket of Stephen A. Smith of ESPN against those created using six generative AI tools.
As we head into the Final Four weekend, Smith’s bracket is holding its own and might just win the whole thing.
While he is not the top point winner so far, he is in third place with 97 points, behind MSFT’s Copilot with 101, and Précis with 103.
But, Smith is tied for first with Copilot in terms of the points that are still left to be won.
One of the reasons for this is that the Final Four is comprised entirely of #1 seeds, and it so happens that that is exactly what Stephen A. Smith predicted. So, he still has the maximum left to gain.
Similarly, MSFT’s Copilot did what Smith did and picked top seeds exclusively.
A conservative betting strategy paid off for both of them.
Précis, meanwhile, performed well to this point by picking three #1 seeds. But, its brackets have effectively been eliminated because it selected a #7 seed, Kansas—a traditional basketball powerhouse–for its fourth slot. Mathematically, there is no way Précis will be able to overtake Copilot from this position.
The only other contestant to still technically have points to gain is ChatGPT. But, its ultimate champion, Tennessee, did not even make it to the Final Four. So, ChatGPT can only earn 16 more points and will never be able to outscore Copilot or Smith.
So, the “Man versus Machine” contest will likely come down to the last weekend and the last game.
If Duke wins, the AI will win. But, if Florida wins, there is still a chance for humanity.
When to Watch the Final Rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament
The 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four will take place on Saturday, April 5, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The matchups are scheduled as follows:
Florida (No. 1 seed) vs. Auburn (No. 1 seed) at 6:09 PM ET on CBS.
Duke (No. 1 seed) vs. Houston (No. 1 seed) at 8:49 PM ET on CBS.
The National Championship game will follow on Monday, April 7, at 8:50 PM ET, also at the Alamodome.
Listen to this blog with one of our AI generated voices.
As we head into tonight’s “Sweet Sixteen” round of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, it’s time to take stock of how one of the world’s leading sports analysts is doing in our competition that pits him, Stephen A. Smith of ESPN, against six generative AI tools.
In short, the man is still in the game and maybe has the best chance to win. But, it is going to take a come-from-behind victory to do so.
On the one hand, his bracket is trailing all the generative AI’s with just 39 points in the traditional scoring method where each win in the first round is 1 point and each win in the second round is 2 points. That’s right, he is dead last after the round of 32.
At the same time, he has the most points left to win with a whopping 124 points still remaining.
This indicates that the man was willing to pick some upsets in the early rounds, but selected a lot of high seeds to go the distance. Looking at his bracket, it turns out he has all 1’s and 2’s in the elite 8!
Importantly, he picked Florida, a #1 seed, to be his champion, which seems like a safe bet as it is one of the favorites to win it all.
That’s not something every AI could say.
In fact, only two of the AI’s picked a #1 seed, Précis and MSFT Copilot, who both picked Duke to win.
ChatGPT had Tennessee, a #2 seed winning it all.
Claude went with a #3, Iowa State, who is already out of the running after losing to Ole Miss in the Round of 32.
Perplexity went with Kansas, a traditional power, but just a #7 seed this year; and they didn’t even make it out of the first round, losing in an upset to #10 seed Arkansas.
Last, but not least, Google’s Gemini chose UConn, an #8 seed, as its champ, which turned out to be a big mistake since Connecticut already got bumped off by one of the tournament favorites, and Stephen A. Smith’s pick to win, Florida.
Check out the table of results following the Round of 32:
“Who would win in a fight?”, is always a fun thought exercise.
Tiger or Bear?
100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?
With March Madness here, and AI taking the world by storm, we thought it would be fun to pit man vs machine.
For this challenge, we asked 6 different AI tools who would win each of the games in the March Madness tournament.
To test their capability, we’re having them match up against their brackets against the one filled out by one of the leading sports analysts, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
The participants in this competition include Précis AI (of course), Chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Perplexity AI.
The test was purely for fun, and non-scientific, but the process of producing the results highlight some insights about AI prompting during the process.
By the end of the tournament, we hope to see who will win, man or machine.
Follow along as the tournament progresses to see which AI comes out on top, and whether any of them can beat the human expert.
Here’s what ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, one of the leading sports analysts, predicted:
