As the Catholic Church prepares for a new leader, the world awaits the election of the next PopeCredit : Gorodenkoff, Shutterstock
The world is getting ready to say goodbye to Pope Francis, whose funeral are taken place on Saturday April 26th.
But in Rome — and far beyond — the question everyone’s quietly asking is: who will wear the white robes next? It seems even artificial intelligence has an idea.
French news outlet BFMTV asked ChatGPT to take a guess, and its answer came back clear and fast: Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Who ChatGPT predicts will be the next Pope
Of course, ChatGPT can’t 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.
Pietro Parolin, according to the AI, has a 27.6 per cent chance of becoming 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 sociology of the College of Cardinals, the balance between continuity and change, leadership and diplomacy skills, health and age, and overall ideological acceptability.
Parolin ticks a lot of boxes:
He’s seen as a steady hand by many moderates, enjoys strong support from the 53 European cardinals, and could be the candidate to quietly steer the Church without causing major upheaval.
According to ChatGPT’s analysis, he would offer a “smooth transition rather than a radical shift”.
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 a 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.
Until then, the Vatican will be a place of quiet conversations, hidden alliances, and whispered hopes.
Because while technology can crunch numbers and spot patterns, the election of a new Pope has always been about far more than logic.
It’s about faith, tradition, politics — and yes, sometimes surprise.
So whether ChatGPT has made an inspired prediction, or simply a very clever guess, only time (and a plume of white smoke) will tell.
