In another incredible milestone for AI gaming, the new expanded Gemini 2.5 Pro model has beaten Pokémon Blue. This accomplishment represents another major step forward for artificial intelligence’s prowess within gaming. 30-year-old Joel Z, a software engineer, held the fundraising livestream that sealed the deal. For the record, he is not working for Google. The livestream, called Gemini Plays Pokémon, has become one of the most popular things on Twitch. Fans are deeply excited about continuing to play with the changing structure that undergirds the game.
Joel Zarraga Joel Z made his way to New York City after building a diverse background in technology, digital media and social impact. Prior to that, he was Adweek’s tech reporter, and senior editor at VentureBeat. His main point was the amazing strides Gemini has made in finishing Pokémon Blue. He emphasized that it’s critical for viewers to understand what a livestream cannot do.
“My interventions improve Gemini’s overall decision-making and reasoning abilities,” Joel Z stated, explaining the role he played in guiding the AI through critical moments in the game. He urged audiences not to view the livestream as a benchmark for how effectively large language models can navigate Pokémon, noting that “you can’t really make direct comparisons — Gemini and Claude have different tools and receive different information.”
The Gemini Plays Pokémon project remains a work in progress, but it serves as an interesting example of how far AI frameworks have evolved. As Joel Z writes, Gemini’s journey through Pokémon Blue was a result of many “dev interventions to success” encounters.
Logan Kilpatrick, a notable figure in AI development, remarked on the achievement, stating that Gemini “earned its 5th badge (next best model only has 3 so far, though with a different agent harness).”
At the same time, Claude AI models have recently made significant progress on mastering another classic game, Pokémon Red. When we reviewed Claude earlier this year, we lauded Anthropic for its impressive strides. They noted that its “long-term reasoning and agent pre-training” increase its effectiveness in unexpected domains, such as gaming.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of the Alphabet-owned giant, celebrated Gemini’s achievement on social media platform X (previously Twitter). He hinted at future developments in AI gaming, saying, “We are working on API, Artificial Pokémon Intelligence:).”
As we know, the world of AI-driven gaming is changing fast. With their advanced capabilities, Gemini and Claude are breaking new ground and leading the charge in reimagining what’s possible in this rapidly evolving landscape.
