- Google’s Gemini 2.5 Professional has formally accomplished Pokémon Blue
- The sport ran as a livestream experiment by an unbiased engineer
- Gemini performed the sport with some gentle developer intervention, however principally by itself
Google’s Gemini AI might not have handed the Turing check but, however it might be very talked-about within the schoolyard three a long time in the past after successful a sport of Pokémon Blue. The Gemini 2.5 Professional is now each Google’s most superior AI mannequin and a Pokémon Master, as demonstrated in a Twitch livestream referred to as “Gemini Performs Pokémon” run by an engineer unaffiliated with Google named Joel Z. Even Google CEO Sundar Pichai joined the celebration, sharing a clip of the victory on X.
What a end! Gemini 2.5 Professional simply accomplished Pokémon Blue!  Particular due to @TheCodeOfJoel for creating and working the livestream, and to everybody who cheered Gem on alongside the way in which. pic.twitter.com/E2pn3tpfEbMay 3, 2025
You may surprise why an AI mannequin beating a thirty-year-old sport drew a lot consideration. It is partly due to the spectacle, but in addition due to AI mannequin rivalry. Again in February, Anthropic showcased the progress its Claude mannequin was making in beating Pokémon Crimson. They used the sport to indicate off Claude’s “prolonged pondering and agent coaching” and launched a “Claude Performs Pokémon” Twitch stream, inspiring Joel Z.
Earlier than crowning Gemini because the one true AI Ash Ketchum, it’s value noting a few caveats. For one, Claude hasn’t technically crushed Pokémon Crimson but, however that doesn’t routinely make Gemini higher, as they employed totally different instruments, referred to as “agent harnesses.” The fashions don’t play the sport instantly like a human with a controller would. As an alternative, they’re fed screenshots of the sport surroundings together with overlays of key info, then requested to generate the subsequent greatest motion. That call is then translated into an precise button press within the sport.
And Gemini hasn’t been going it totally alone. Joel admitted he sometimes stepped in to make enhancements, although he has made a level of doing so solely to enhance a few of Gemini’s reasoning. He additionally plans to proceed engaged on the Gemini Performs Pokémon venture to make additional enhancements.
Pokémon AI
What makes this greater than a quirky web stunt is what it implies about the place AI is headed. Taking part in a sport like Pokémon Blue isn’t about quick reflexes or memorizing controller inputs. It’s about long-term technique, adapting to surprises, and navigating ambiguous challenges. These are all areas the place AI often wants enchancment. That Gemini couldn’t solely maintain its personal however end the sport (with minimal nudging) means that fashions prefer it are getting higher at prolonged technique.
It is also the type of milestone the common individual can perceive. You may intuitively perceive what the AI is doing when bumbling by Lavender City or misreading a battle tactic, and evaluate it to the alternatives you’d make in that context. In fact, you should not overstate what this implies. AI can now end a sport you in all probability beat in center faculty, nevertheless it additionally highlights how a lot human effort nonetheless goes into making AI appear autonomous.
Whether or not or not Claude or Gemini change into true Pokémasters would not matter a lot as what they’re enjoying means for AI’s improvement. Exhibiting that AI will not simply crunch numbers or generate spam emails may change how folks consider what AI can do, even with assist. And if that is how AI fashions begin studying the right way to function in unpredictable, open-ended environments, nicely, beating Mewtwo may simply be a stepping stone to one thing a lot extra profound. Or no less than, a bit extra productive.
