Paul the Octopus opted for Spain against the Netherlands in 2010. But how do his predictive skills compare to machine learning? Roland Weihrauch/DPA/AFP via Getty Images In times past, when we wanted to know which team would win the World Cup, we had to turn to seers with crystal balls, use divination via tea leaves, or hope for Paul the Octopus to tell us what would happen. But modern data science can provide a better alternative. As part of a team of statisticians, I helped train a machine lea