Gemini 2.5 Pro just won this popular 29 year old game, even Sundar Pichai is impressed

India Today

04-05-2025

Google launched Gemini 2.5 Pro a month ago and claims that it is the "most intelligent AI model" to date. During the launch, the tech giant highlighted that this model is much better than its competition, including OpenAI o3 models, DeepSeek R1, Claude and more. While benchmarks (provided by Google) are living proof of it, a recent win against a 29-year-old video game, Pokmon Blue, also added another feather to its cap. Since these are just claims from Google, we wanted to see how good the model is, and here is what we found. But before you read our experience, the question is: why is winning against a video game a milestone for an AI model? Let's find out. advertisementGemini 2.5 Pro finishes Pokmon BlueFor context, Pokmon Blue (released in 1996) is known for its intricate gameplay mechanics, strategic combat, and open-world exploration—elements that pose significant challenges for AI systems. To perform well in the game, an AI must demonstrate abilities such as long-term planning, goal management, and visual navigation—core competencies in the pursuit of general artificial intelligence. Now that Gemini 2.5 Pro has won against the complexities of this game, the AI model has proved its title, "most intelligent model".Reacting to this win, CEO Sundar Pichai took to X (formerly Twitter), saying, "What a finish! Gemini 2.5 Pro just completed Pokmon Blue!
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To clarify, the Gemini Plays Pokmon livestream wasn't launched by Google itself, but by 'a 30-year-old software engineer unaffiliated with Google' who goes by the name Joel Z. Nonetheless, Google executives have shown enthusiastic support for the project. Logan Kilpatrick, product lead for Google AI Studio, shared an update last month, noting that Gemini was 'making great progress at completing Pokmon' and had 'earned its 5th badge (next best model only has 3 so far, though with a different agent harness).'During the launch, Google highlighted that one of the standout improvements in this model lies in its enhanced coding abilities, which have been described as 'a big leap over 2.0' with 'more improvements to come.' According to Google, '2.5 Pro excels at creating visually compelling web apps and agentic code applications, along with code transformation and editing.'In recognised industry benchmarks for agentic coding, Gemini 2.5 Pro delivered a strong performance—scoring 63.8 per cent on SWE-Bench Verified using a custom agent setup—highlighting its proficiency in complex software engineering tasks. Now that we are comparing, Anthropic's Claude AI model has also been in the race to beat another Pokmon version, Red. But it has not been successful so far.In February, Anthropic showcased the strides its Claude AI models were making in Pokmon Red, noting that Claude's 'extended thinking and agent training' gave it 'a major boost' when tackling 'more unexpected' tasks, such as playing a classic video game. While Claude has made notable progress, it has yet to complete Pokmon Red.advertisementImpressive as it may be, Gemini's performance doesn't yet signal true general intelligence. The developer still lends a hand from time to time—intervening to fix bugs or restrict certain actions, such as overusing escape items. He maintains that no direct walkthroughs or step-by-step guidance are provided, aside from a one-off case involving a known glitch.It's still an open question whether Gemini could manage the same feat entirely on its own. Nevertheless, its ability to navigate a game as intricate as Pokmon Blue—even with some support—demonstrates the remarkable potential of large language models when deployed within a carefully structured environment.