Microsoft’s Copilot produced a full Week 3 slate of NFL score predictions for USA TODAY — a tidy, repeatable experiment that reveals as much about modern large language models as it does about football forecasting.
Background / Overview
USA TODAY ran a simple, repeatable workflow: prompt...
ai explainability
ai in newsroom
ai in sports
ai-driven sports
copilot
datafreshness
editorial review
editorial transparency
large language model
llm
model interpretability
monte carlo
nfl predictions
nfl week 3
predictive analytics
probabilistic forecasting
roster data accuracy
sports analytics
sports betting ai
usa today
Microsoft’s Copilot produced a wildly entertaining — and instructive — first-round mock of the 2026 NFL Draft after Week 1, exposing both the speed and the limits of conversational AI when it tries to translate fuzzy, fast-moving sports data into roster decisions.
Background
USA TODAY’s...
ai ethics
ai in journalism
ai in sports
ai sports forecasting
datafreshness
draft heuristics
editorial safeguards
editorial workflow
human in the loop
market modeling
mock drafts
nfl draft
predictive modeling
probabilistic outputs
quarterback value
retrieval latency
roster decisions
sports analytics
sports technology
usa today copilot
USA TODAY's decision to run every Week 1 matchup through Microsoft Copilot produced a tidy, headline-friendly slate of predictions — and a revealing window into how modern large language models reason about sports: they reward established quarterbacks, prize defensive strength and coaching...