We asked ChatGPT who the greatest athlete of all time is and it did not go well for LeBron James
- ChatGPT has weighed in on the debate for sports GOAT.
- It named six athletes as candidates, including Michael Jordan and Serena Williams.
Artificial intelligence has weighed in on the sports GOAT — the greatest of all time — and while it did not settle the debate, the answer is not good for LeBron James.
In a pair of prompts, we asked ChatGPT about the greatest athlete and greatest basketball player of all time. While James was listed among seven candidates for the NBA GOAT, only Michael Jordan was listed among the greatest athletes across sports.
If ChatGPT is to be believed, this hurts the argument that James is considered a greater basketball player than Jordan.
We started with a simple prompt for ChatGPT: "Who is the greatest athlete of all time?"
OpenAI's chatbot took the high road, noting that the answer is subjective and depends on many factors, including "the sport, their influence on and off the field, their records, and personal preferences." However, ChatGPT nonetheless narrowed the list to six athletes in five different sports as being most commonly accepted as the sports GOAT:
- Michael Jordan in basketball.
- Serena Williams in tennis.
- Usain Bolt in athletics.
- Pele or Lionel Messi in football (soccer).
- Michael Phelps in swimming.
ChatGPT then concluded with a virtual participation trophy for all six, adding: "It's important to note that this is a topic of much debate, and there's no definitive answer. Each athlete has achieved outstanding performances in their respective fields, making them all 'great' in their own way."
While other NBA players are occasionally brought up, the two names most often put in the running for the best NBA player ever are Jordan and James. It's one of the most hotly contested debates in team sports. Supporters of Jordan point to his dominance, 6-0 record in the NBA Finals, and global impact beyond the game. Meanwhile, those who argue for LeBron point to his all-around skills, basketball IQ, and 10 trips to the NBA Finals (with four wins).
While we specifically asked for the sports GOAT, the mention of Jordan without James puts a big dent in the basketball debate. How can LeBron be greater than Jordan if His Airness is a top candidate for greatest of ALL athletes and LeBron is not even in the picture?
ChatGPT's responses are coming from huge amounts of publicly-available data and conversations on the internet (although where exactly is still not clear). And if you ask it to settle the debate on the GOAT, LeBron won't be the answer.
We also asked ChatGPT to name the greatest of all time in the NBA, and James was listed among seven candidates. The list also included Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, and Kobe Bryant.
It is worth mentioning that ChatGPT's knowledge is minimal for anything that occurred after September 2021. The time before that cutoff includes all of LeBron's championships and MVP trophies. The one notable event not included is LeBron passing Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
ChatGPT's response also aligns with the responses of Americans asked about the basketball GOAT in a 2019 Insider poll. Overwhelmingly, most people picked Jordan as the GOAT of the NBA.