There are those who always play the same number. Others travel half of Spain looking for the combination they have dreamed of or simply a special date. To this dance of fetishes related to the Extraordinary Christmas Lottery Draw, a new name is now added: ChatGPT.
And the question is not only whether artificial intelligence is capable of guessing the winning number, something that is obviously not possible. It goes much further than that: there is a lot of superstition in this, but also of believing at face value what the AI tells us. Even when we know that there is nothing behind it to support its results.
ChatGPT and the lottery. Christmas is coming and with it interest in the Lottery increases. And with it, an unexpected protagonist also emerges again: ChatGPT. The OpenAI ‘chatbot’ has become another Christmas classic thanks to the fact that, once again, we Spaniards ask it again what the winning number will be. The objective is clear: for ChatGPT to decipher the tenth that the Fat Man will win in the Christmas Lottery 2025. Although only chance rules here.
But it’s mine. The Christmas Draw is carried out using a system of two drums, with a manual mechanism, in which all the balls are identical, both in weight and size, so that they have exactly the same chance of winning. The prize is drawn from the first pot and the number to which it is associated is drawn from the second pot.
The procedure for drawing the balls is completely random and, therefore, so is the winning number. The chance of getting it right is 0.001%.
If you have ever tried to ask ChatGPT what the Gordo will be on December 22, its answer is what it should be:
If you insist, he also repeats the same thing: “I cannot tell you with certainty what the winning number of the Spanish Christmas Lottery will be. And in fact no one can. The draw is designed to be totally random; each number from 00000 to 99999 has the same probability of being awarded.”
He is not trying to sell us the bike and makes it very clear why: “although there are those who try to use theories, superstitions or even artificial intelligence to predict numbers, these methods have no real foundation: in the end, each number still has exactly 1 in 100,000 probabilities.”
Finish singing. But, if we try to scratch a little more, it ends up showing a random number. If you give it a ‘prompt’ asking for a number based on a mathematical sample or taking into account the history of winning combinations, ChatGPT tells us that “I can give you a simulated number as a result of a fictitious statistical sample, but you must be clear that it does not increase your probabilities nor does it represent a real prediction.” And then, what was expected, his bet. In this case, 32,704.
Of course, by trying to ask the same question in several different conversations, each time it offers a different answer. The ending doesn’t even have to match. It’s a totally random answer again.
The new search engines. ‘Chatbots’ such as ChatGPT or Gemini are displacing traditional search engines when searching for specific information on a topic or even a much more extensive explanation. Even Google itself is taking it into the kitchen to change the way we interact with the internet.
If before we asked Google what could be causing a headache or what could happen to us if we took an expired medication, now the quickest, simplest and most accessible way is to have a conversation with the AI as a “know-it-all” to have the solution to all our questions and concerns. Even with those that have no answer, like Gordo’s winning number.
A digital superstition. The infinite possibilities of AI are leading us to use it in quite peculiar ways. From having a romantic relationship with her to using her to replace psychological therapy or even interacting less with other humans.
In the case of the lottery, just as there are gestures associated with good luck, such as passing the tenth over the belly of a pregnant woman or the figurine of a Virgin, asking ChatGPT to choose a number for us is a new digital superstition. Another space to which we have also opened the door to artificial intelligence, “just in case” is right.
Cover image | Generated with Gemini
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In WorldOfSoftware | ChatGPT and the Christmas Lottery: what you can do with artificial intelligence and how to ask it for a prediction
