Beat the bot in this year’s Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition

This post is by Lizzie.

It’s back with a twist!

Once again, the Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition will run throughout February 2025. We challenge you to predict the bloom date of cherry trees at five locations throughout the world and win prizes.

However, this year, contestants will not only compete against each other for the top prizes—but against artificial intelligence.

We will include one or more submissions from the most popular large language models. Our AI handlers will prompt the AI with the contest rules and the entries from previous competitions. The handlers will then execute any code written by the AI as part of their entry. Judges will review all entries without knowing which were submitted by humans and which were written by AI.

Any human that beats the AI will receive commemorative memorabilia indicating they “beat the bot in the 2025 International Cherry Blossom Prediction Competition.”