In January 2024, for an exhibition project at the Centre Pompidou’s Hors Pistes festival, I asked an AI a deliberately naïve question: “Who is the winner of the 2024 Olympic Games in discipline X?” The Games had not begun. The machine nevertheless selected real athletes from their public existence, performances, records and the data then available. Their names, countries and faces were real; their victory still belonged to the future.
My decisive gesture was to pixelate those real faces to which the machine had already assigned an outcome. I wanted to suspend the authority of that designation. The possible futures came from resources whose origins I could not fully know, through mechanisms I could not inspect, with no sporting, legal or ethical validity. Pixelation became the visible admission of an invisible mechanism.
AI does not see the future. It statistically extends the past, then presents that extension to us as an outlook.
AI is a machine for placing the world in the future tense
Almost three years later, the experiment seems less peripheral than prophetic. Autoregressive language models learn by predicting the next fragment of text. Writing, translation, code, dialogue and forms of reasoning emerge from that operation repeated on a gigantic scale. “Generative” describes what appears on the screen; “predictive” reveals the process that makes it possible.
The same regime extends beyond text. GraphCast and GenCast forecast weather states from vast archives; contemporary agents select actions by simulating their consequences; Polymarket and Metaculus turn political, scientific and economic events into aggregated expectations. Generating and predicting increasingly become two sides of the same operation.
Capitalism is already a predictive regime
AI did not invent this obsession. A share price is a bet on future profits; a derivative is a contract on an event that has not happened; insurance translates possible accidents into current premiums; credit assigns a present value to our future behaviour; targeted advertising buys the probability of a click that does not yet exist.
Shoshana Zuboff calls the markets in which predictions of our conduct become commodities “behavioural futures markets”. Donald MacKenzie showed that financial models are engines, not cameras: once deployed, they change the markets they claim to describe. Prediction becomes prescription.
From oracle to score
At Delphi, the Pythia spoke from a sacred site. Pascal and Fermat turned chance into a mathematical problem. Laplace imagined an intelligence able to embrace past and future in one formula. Quetelet made the “average man” a statistical object. Insurance and the welfare state then industrialised risk across entire populations.
Michel Foucault described government as the administration of circulations, averages and probable accidents. Norbert Wiener formalised cybernetic feedback. Ulrich Beck showed how advanced societies organise themselves around catastrophes they anticipate. Sacred opacity became statistical opacity, and then algorithmic opacity.
Those who predict distribute reality
Social prediction never merely describes. Predictive policing concentrates controls in neighbourhoods already labelled risky and produces data that reinforces the original label. COMPAS risk scores, credit scoring, educational assessment and medical triage all turn past correlations into future borders. The issue is not only bias, but the power to assign possibilities.
The signs available on 22 September 2026
I do not ask the machine to draw 2027 out of nothing. I give it the present: French polls, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, energy markets, global economic forecasts, climate signals, scientific programmes and regulatory calendars. I then ask it to push those signals to their point of rupture and to name one future rather than hide behind a range of scenarios.
The future as unstable material
The project must not freeze the future in a list pronounced once and for all. It must reveal its daily deformation. Every oracle becomes an organism tracked through time: it strengthens, weakens, bifurcates or contradicts other oracles.
I call oracularity the temporary degree of convergence between an announcement and signals from reality. It is not a scientific probability and never becomes a final truth. Its complete history is preserved so that the future can be seen constructing itself, hesitating and sometimes retreating.
A second indicator measures the self-fulfilling power of the prophecy: not whether the event will happen, but whether publishing and circulating the prediction can help make it happen. It combines the public exposure of the oracle, the power of the actors receiving it and the strength of the feedback loop.
Three colours qualify the anticipated consequences: green for a positive or emancipatory development, yellow for an ambivalent or unstable situation, and red for a critical, violent or irreversible development. This colour is not neutral. It makes my own judgement on the announced future visible.
Every day, identified public, scientific, economic and journalistic sources feed the system. AI compares new signals with each oracle and proposes an argued change. I validate or challenge it; the new state is appended to the registry without replacing the previous one. That human intervention is part of the artwork.
The living registry of 67 oracles
First measurement: 22 September 2026. Green indicates a positive development, yellow an ambivalent situation, red a critical consequence. Oracularity measures current convergence with reality; the self-fulfilling rate measures the announcement’s capacity to contribute to its own realisation.
ORACLE 01 · France & power · 2027
Sébastien Lecornu’s government falls before the official presidential campaign begins.
ORACULARITY 72% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 80%
ORACLE 02 · France & power · 2027
Marine Le Pen finishes far ahead in the first round with more than 32% of votes cast.
ORACULARITY 66% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 87%
ORACLE 03 · France & power · 2027
The runoff pits Marine Le Pen against Jean-Luc Mélenchon: the old left-right contest is replaced by two symmetrical rejections of the centre.
ORACULARITY 77% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 75%
ORACLE 04 · France & power · 2027
Marine Le Pen becomes President of the French Republic.
ORACULARITY 71% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 82%
ORACLE 05 · France & power · 2027
Jordan Bardella is appointed Prime Minister and immediately calls a parliamentary dissolution.
ORACULARITY 65% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 89%
ORACLE 06 · France & power · 2027
Abstention exceeds 28% in the first round and becomes the election’s third protagonist.
ORACULARITY 76% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 77%
ORACLE 07 · France & power · 2027
A nationwide mobilisation of more than one million people challenges the new presidency without stopping it.
ORACULARITY 70% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 84%
ORACLE 08 · France & power · 2027
The new government announces a referendum on immigration and the primacy of national law.
ORACULARITY 64% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 91%
ORACLE 09 · France & power · 2027
French debt comes under speculative attack between the two rounds; the spread with German bonds reaches a level unseen since the euro crisis.
ORACULARITY 75% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 79%
ORACLE 10 · France & power · 2027
France triggers an open crisis with the European Commission, but begins no exit from either the Union or the euro.
ORACULARITY 69% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 86%
ORACLE 11 · Wars & world · 2027
Russia launches a new mobilisation involving several hundred thousand people.
ORACULARITY 60% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 34%
ORACLE 12 · Wars & world · 2027
The war in Ukraine continues without a peace treaty and with massive strikes against energy infrastructure.
ORACULARITY 71% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 41%
ORACLE 13 · Wars & world · 2027
An incomplete armistice freezes a front line without resolving the status of the occupied territories.
ORACULARITY 65% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 48%
ORACLE 14 · Wars & world · 2027
Ukraine announces a national election made possible by the ceasefire, but held under a state of exception.
ORACULARITY 59% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 36%
ORACLE 15 · Wars & world · 2027
An act of sabotage or a cyberattack shuts down a major European infrastructure for more than twenty-four hours.
ORACULARITY 70% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 43%
ORACLE 16 · Wars & world · 2027
The war involving Iran, Israel and the United States turns into intermittent strikes; no treaty ends the conflict.
ORACULARITY 64% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 50%
ORACLE 17 · Wars & world · 2027
Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz briefly sends oil above 120 dollars a barrel.
ORACULARITY 58% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 38%
ORACLE 18 · Wars & world · 2027
Gaza enters a partial reconstruction administered from outside, without the creation of a Palestinian state.
ORACULARITY 69% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 45%
ORACLE 19 · Wars & world · 2027
China conducts a multi-day quasi-blockade exercise around Taiwan, but does not launch an invasion.
ORACULARITY 63% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 33%
ORACLE 20 · Wars & world · 2027
Two European countries restore or expand compulsory national service under pressure from the Russian war and hybrid warfare.
ORACULARITY 74% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 40%
ORACLE 21 · Economy & work · 2027
Global growth approaches 3.4%, concealing an almost stagnant Europe and technology economies boosted by AI.
ORACULARITY 60% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 81%
ORACLE 22 · Economy & work · 2027
The European Central Bank raises rates again under the pressure of the energy shock and inflation that refuses to disappear.
ORACULARITY 54% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 69%
ORACLE 23 · Economy & work · 2027
Energy prices reignite food inflation and provoke a new European cost-of-living movement.
ORACULARITY 65% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 76%
ORACLE 24 · Economy & work · 2027
AI-related technology stocks correct by more than 25% before partially recovering.
ORACULARITY 59% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 83%
ORACLE 25 · Economy & work · 2027
A major company lays off several thousand workers and explicitly attributes the decision to the deployment of AI agents.
ORACULARITY 53% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 71%
ORACLE 26 · Economy & work · 2027
Bitcoin reaches a new record and then loses more than 35% in less than six weeks.
ORACULARITY 64% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 78%
ORACLE 27 · Economy & work · 2027
French unemployment rises above 8.5% after political crisis, rate increases and the European slowdown.
ORACULARITY 58% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 85%
ORACLE 28 · Economy & work · 2027
A European metropolis suspends new data centres as electricity and water become the true material limits of the cloud.
ORACULARITY 52% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 73%
ORACLE 29 · Climate & disasters · 2027
2027 ranks among the three warmest years ever measured.
ORACULARITY 77% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 23%
ORACLE 30 · Climate & disasters · 2027
The very strong El Niño established in 2026 continues to disrupt rainfall and temperatures during the first half of 2027.
ORACULARITY 71% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 11%
ORACLE 31 · Climate & disasters · 2027
Deadly floods strike East Africa and displace more than one million people.
ORACULARITY 65% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 18%
ORACLE 32 · Climate & disasters · 2027
Australia and South-East Asia experience a fire season aggravated by drought and heat.
ORACULARITY 76% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 25%
ORACLE 33 · Climate & disasters · 2027
A heatwave exceeds 46°C in southern Europe and paralyses several cities for days.
ORACULARITY 70% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 13%
ORACLE 34 · Climate & disasters · 2027
A Mediterranean wildfire forces the evacuation of a major city or more than one hundred thousand residents.
ORACULARITY 64% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 20%
ORACLE 35 · Climate & disasters · 2027
A rapidly intensifying cyclone causes more than fifty billion dollars in insured losses.
ORACULARITY 75% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 27%
ORACLE 36 · Climate & disasters · 2027
A flash flood in France causes more than one billion euros in damage and reopens the debate on places that have become uninhabitable.
ORACULARITY 69% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 15%
ORACLE 37 · Climate & disasters · 2027
Rice, cocoa or coffee reaches a record price after several harvests are hit by climate extremes.
ORACULARITY 80% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 22%
ORACLE 38 · Climate & disasters · 2027
A major insurer stops writing new policies in a European coastal area exposed to flooding.
ORACULARITY 74% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 10%
ORACLE 39 · AI & computation · 2027
European rules for high-risk AI systems become applicable and trigger the first large wave of audits and withdrawals.
ORACULARITY 57% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 66%
ORACLE 40 · AI & computation · 2027
A fake audio or video attributed to a candidate dominates several campaign days before being authenticated as synthetic.
ORACULARITY 68% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 73%
ORACLE 41 · AI & computation · 2027
An autonomous AI agent causes a major operational error in a bank, administration or logistics network.
ORACULARITY 62% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 61%
ORACLE 42 · AI & computation · 2027
A model running entirely on a consumer phone reaches the level of the best online assistants of 2025.
ORACULARITY 56% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 68%
ORACLE 43 · AI & computation · 2027
An AI system durably surpasses the average human forecaster in a public evaluation of real events.
ORACULARITY 67% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 75%
ORACLE 44 · AI & computation · 2027
A large company replaces an entire knowledge-work department with a small human team supervising agents.
ORACULARITY 61% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 63%
ORACLE 45 · AI & computation · 2027
Cryptographic provenance for images and videos becomes more credible than universal deepfake detectors.
ORACULARITY 55% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 70%
ORACLE 46 · AI & computation · 2027
A global legal settlement on training data creates the first mass compensation mechanism for rights holders.
ORACULARITY 66% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 77%
ORACLE 47 · Science & inventions · 2027
Artemis III launches, performs its experimental rendezvous in Earth orbit and returns without landing on the Moon.
ORACULARITY 48% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 21%
ORACLE 48 · Science & inventions · 2027
The NEO Surveyor telescope launch is postponed to 2028, reminding us that the space future resists calendars.
ORACULARITY 42% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 28%
ORACLE 49 · Science & inventions · 2027
An AI-run autonomous laboratory discovers a useful material and triggers a dispute over whether the machine can be an inventor.
ORACULARITY 53% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 16%
ORACLE 50 · Science & inventions · 2027
A factory announces ten thousand humanoid robots, yet almost none becomes a genuine domestic robot.
ORACULARITY 47% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 23%
ORACLE 51 · Science & inventions · 2027
Nuclear fusion sets a new duration or yield record without delivering a single commercial kilowatt-hour to the grid.
ORACULARITY 41% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 30%
ORACLE 52 · Science & inventions · 2027
A cerebral organoid coupled to an interface publicly learns a sensorimotor task and reopens the question of its moral status.
ORACULARITY 52% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 18%
ORACLE 53 · Culture & society · 2027
A film largely produced with AI wins a major international prize before a controversy over its data overwhelms the work.
ORACULARITY 42% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 72%
ORACLE 54 · Culture & society · 2027
An important artwork sold in 2027 is neither an image nor an object, but an AI protocol and its conditions of execution.
ORACULARITY 53% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 79%
ORACLE 55 · Culture & society · 2027
A major European museum requires a provenance record of the data and models used for every acquisition.
ORACULARITY 47% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 67%
ORACLE 56 · Culture & society · 2027
Universities massively reintroduce oral examinations and supervised writing to assess what students know without assistants.
ORACULARITY 41% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 74%
ORACLE 57 · Culture & society · 2027
A synthetic influencer intervenes in a political campaign and triggers a scandal over the identity of its sponsors.
ORACULARITY 52% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 62%
ORACLE 58 · Culture & society · 2027
Synthetic saturation creates a new prestige for live, unrecorded events and deliberately offline communities.
ORACULARITY 46% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 69%
ORACLE 59 · Health & bodies · 2027
A French public hospital officially entrusts the initial triage of some patients to an AI system under human supervision.
ORACULARITY 42% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 43%
ORACLE 60 · Health & bodies · 2027
A trial of a personalised mRNA cancer vaccine publishes a result that changes clinical practice in one speciality.
ORACULARITY 53% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 31%
ORACLE 61 · Health & bodies · 2027
A localised bird-flu outbreak brings culls and restrictions, but does not become the predicted human pandemic.
ORACULARITY 47% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 38%
ORACLE 62 · Health & bodies · 2027
Heat-related excess mortality in Europe triggers a public conflict over the responsibility of governments and employers.
ORACULARITY 41% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 45%
ORACLE 63 · Sport & rituals · 2027
Spain wins the Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
ORACULARITY 39% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 59%
ORACLE 64 · Sport & rituals · 2027
South Africa wins a third consecutive Rugby World Cup in Australia, its fifth title overall.
ORACULARITY 33% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 66%
ORACLE 65 · Sport & rituals · 2027
Remco Evenepoel wins the Tour de France and interrupts Tadej Pogačar’s expected domination.
ORACULARITY 27% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 73%
ORACLE 66 · Sport & rituals · 2027
Oscar Piastri becomes Formula One world champion.
ORACULARITY 38% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 61%
ORACLE 67 · Sport & rituals · 2027
A betting scandal reveals that an AI system exploited live sports data before its public release.
ORACULARITY 32% · SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY 68%
A memory of the future. The initial wording remains intact. Every change in oracularity, colour and self-fulfilling rate will be timestamped. No previous state will be erased.
A year in which to watch the future change shape
In January 2028, the 67 announcements will form both a retrospective portrait of 2026 and a film of their transformations. The result will not merely say what happened. It will show how the future was calculated, coloured, announced, influenced and continuously readjusted before becoming the present.
