The voting starts tonight in Iowa, but Microsoft’s Bing platform has already called the caucus/primary results before the first vote is counted – and it has a pretty good record.
Bing is forecasting a straight sweep of the first four contests for Trump and all but New Hampshire for Hillary.
Bernie Sander’s supporters are concerned about the predictions as Microsoft is providing the app through which caucus results will be tabulated which points to a possible conflict-of-interest for the technology giant.
Bing has an impressive record when it comes to forecasting political races. The platform correctly predicted over 95% of the 2014 primary outcomes and correctly called the 2015 Academy Awards.
Pre-race predictions can affect turnout. If Hillary and Trump’s supporters feel like they’ve got the race won, the inclement weather expected this evening might be enough to keep them home. Sander’s and Cruz’s followers, if convinced they might lose, might take the extra effort to show up.
Big Blue’s data mining cloud computer hasn’t made any guesses as of yet. IBM’s Watson seems too busy studying Bob Dylan lyrics to be bothered to prognosticate the election.
1 for 2 and sooooooooooooooooo close to 0 for 2