Fantasy Premier League: No Haaland and a 4-5-1 – can ChatGPT … – City A.M.
By: Steve Dinneen
Today marks the start of the 2023/24 Premier League season, and by extension the 2023/24 Fantasy Premier League (FPL). And while everybody else was busy transferring out Harry Kane and worrying about Ramsdale’s starting spot at Arsenal given the arrival of Raya, we were wondering if this is the year ChatGPT might be able to compete with the best.
We fed in the latest points and positions into the AI chatbot and asked it to come up with a team, and after a few clarifications – it did not like Son being a midfielder, for instance – it came up with what looks, on paper at least, to be a decent FPL squad.
Perhaps most interesting is the lack of a certain Norwegian powerhouse up front – the most popular player in the game, selected by 87 per cent of FPL managers. Instead the AI decided to run a 4-5-1 formation with Antonio up front. For a lowly organic being, Haaland was first on my team sheet, but I don’t have trillions of data-points to draw from…
This is the FPL team in full:
GK
Alisson
DEF
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Ben White
João Cancelo
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
MID
Mohamed Salah
Kaoru Mitoma
Mason Mount
Bruno Fernandes
Son Heung-min
FOR
Antonio
Subs: Robert Sánchez, Vladimír Coufal, Vladimír Coufal, Dominic Calvert-Lewin
In the name of full disclosure, there was a little back and forth in the team selection – there were some players from the Spanish league that Chat GPT fancied that we were forced to veto, and it was also keen on spending over the £100m allowed in the rules of the game.
We also challenged its decision to pay £9m and £8.5m respectively for Son and Fernandes and then leave them on the bench.
“I apologize for the oversight,” it replied. “It looks like I made an error in the lineup. Son should definitely be in the starting lineup based on his capabilities.”
It sensibly picked Salah as its FPL captain and Fernandes as vice captain, and wanted to save its triple captain chip for a double gameweek.
I asked it to choose a “funny” team name, and it came up with “ByteMyGoalBot FC”, which is… a name.
I also asked it to pick a colour for its kit. “As an AI, I don’t have personal preferences or feelings, so I don’t have a preference for a specific colour kit.”
“Pick one at random,” I said.
“Sure, let’s go with Purple! Your fantasy football team will wear purple kits.”
“This is your team!”
“Ah, got it! In that case, the team will wear blue kits. Good luck to the AI-themed fantasy football team!”
So there you have it – ByteMyGoalBot FC’s FPL team wears purple kits, plays a 4-5-1 formation and doesn’t rate Haaland. We’ll keep you posted on its progress.
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