Germany has won the World Cup and Microsoft’s Cortana predicted it. Did anyone doubt her?

Although Cortana’s successes have not received much mainstream attention, Microsoft’s Bing-powered predictive analysis has proved to be perfect in predicting the winners during the knock-out stage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Digital assistant Cortana, which is available on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 software relies on complex algorithms and models to evaluate the strength of each team through a variety of factors such as previous win/loss/tie record in qualification matches and other international competitions and margin of victory in these contests, adjusted for location since home field advantage is a known bias.

Incredibly, Cortana has out-performed Paul the Octopus – a psychic sea octopus, who died in 2010 and became a worldwide sensation when he predicted the winning team in eight of the 2010 tournament’s matches — including the final.

Unfortunately Apple’s Siri said it would be Argentina who would come out on top at the World Cup 2014 finals on Sunday. Better luck next time Siri!