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As the Catholic church prepares for the election of a new Pope, the entire world is waiting.
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On Saturday, April 26th, the world will say goodbye to Pope Francis.
But in Rome — and far beyond — the question everyone’s quietly asking is: who will wear the white robes next? It appears that even artificial intelligence is thinking about it.
French news outlet BFMTV ChatGPT was asked to guess and the answer came in clear and fast. Cardinal PietroParolin.
ChatGPT predicts the next Pope
ChatGPT is not able to predict the future. But when it was fed a careful set of criteria — avoiding news articles that might skew results — it quickly pointed to Italy’s current Secretary of State as the front-runner.
AI says that Pietro Parolin is 27.6% likely to become the next pope.
That puts him ahead of big names like Luis Antonio Tagle, Matteo Zuppi, Péter Erdö, and Peter Turkson.
The AI’s ‘thinking’ was based on five main points:
The social history of the College of Cardinals is a good indicator of how well the Cardinals are doing in terms of leadership, diplomacy and health.
Parolin checks a lot off the list:
He is seen by many as a moderate who can be trusted. The 53 European cardinals also support him. This could make him the best candidate to lead the Church quietly without creating major upheaval.
ChatGPT believes that he would make a “smooth shift” rather than one involving a radical change.
As for Peter Turkson — one of the few African candidates often mentioned — ChatGPT noted he remains a ‘symbolic figure’ and, at least for now, more of a potential kingmaker than a favourite to take the top spot.
The Catholic church prepares for the new era
The formal mourning period must pass before anything official happens, but insiders say the conclave — the closed-door process to elect the new Pope — is likely to begin between 5 and 10 May.
The Vatican is a place where whispered dreams, secret alliances and quiet conversations will continue until then.
While technology can crunch the numbers and spot patterns in data, the election for a new pope has always been more than just logic.
It’s about faith, tradition, politics — and yes, sometimes surprise.
ChatGPT’s prediction is either a clever one or a well-informed one. Only time will tell (and the plume of smoke).
