The Loop
Wikipedia knew about Kevin Kisner's win hours before it happened
Darren Carroll
It's happened. The computers have become sentient, and able to predict the future. The prophecies foretold of this day.
For future historians searching for the inflection point of the battle between humans and technology, let it be known the warning shot was fired on March 31, in the year of our Lord 2019. That was when Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that became the de facto source of all information (and misinformation) predicted Kevin Kisner would defeat Matt Kuchar at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play 3&2 hours before it happened. (For future historians wondering what "WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play" is, search "Caddyshack" on the Netflix chip embedded in your eyeball to get an idea.)
This phenomenon was first noted by the AP's Doug Ferguson as the Kisner-Kuchar championship match headed to Austin Country Club's back nine:
We couldn't believe this development, so decided to check ourselves. Apparently Wikipedia decided to hedge its bets, ever so slightly:
Because, as any golfer knows, when someone asks for a match-play result, the first response is always, "Well, it WASN'T 3&2, obviously."
However, the original forecast proved to be true, as Kiz disposed of Kuchar 3&2.
Granted, Wikipedia flaunts itself as an "open collaboration," that individual users—i.e. humans—are the ones behind the edits, so this could have been some lonely guy in his basement with an itchy trigger finger. Which is just the type of explanation artificial intelligence wants us mere mortals to think.