Germany Beats Argentina in World Cup 2014 Final to Make Cortana a Worthy Replacement for Paul the Octopus

Given an opportunity, many of us at IBTimes UK would rewind the clock, go back in time and place bets relying on Cortana's match predictions for the recent FIFA World Cup 2014.

Apart from an accurate prediction for the final match between Germany and Argentina, Cortana has 15 accurate predictions to her credit, including every match in the knockout stage.

Previously, a mysterious sea creature, Paul The Octopus, made headlines after having predicted eight out of 10 matches at the 2010 Fifa World Cup. His prediction also included the final.

However, Cortana's performance with predictions at the most recent World Cup have allowed her to become the obvious replacement.

All in all, Cortana's stellar predictions have resulted in a big win for Microsoft. For a long time now, Microsoft has been trying hard to make sure that its Windows Phone gets the attention of the industry and the masses.

It appears as though they have accomplished that for the first time now. Thanks to its World Cup predictions, Cortana was able to showcase its capabilities along with that of Bing's.

Sure enough, there are bound to be many people who are now considering to purchase a Windows Phone instead of an Android or iOS.

For the uninitiated, Cortana happens to be Microsoft's virtual assistant on the Windows Phone platform. It happens to be the company's answer to rival Apple's Siri and Google's Google Now.

Here's How Cortana Delivered All Those Amazing Predictions:

"The process of predicting outcomes of sporting events is unlike voting show predictions, as popularity and some sentiment signals do not play similar roles in determining who wins a contest," said Microsoft in a blog post.

"Rather, the actions and performances of a handful of individuals solely determine who wins, loses, or ties. For the tournament, our models 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," the post reads.

Read the entire explanation here.