In a striking display of digital prowess, Google’s Gemini beats Pokémon Blue, a 1996 GameBoy classic, marking a unique win for the tech giant’s flagship AI model in the realm of interactive gameplay.
The announcement came directly from Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who took to X with enthusiasm: “What a finish! Gemini 2.5 Pro just completed Pokémon Blue!” While the livestream showcasing the feat wasn’t an official Google production, the company’s top executives have been actively supporting the project from the sidelines.
Gemini’s Game Run Led by Independent Engineer, Backed by Google Cheers
The gameplay itself was orchestrated by Joel Z, a 30-year-old software engineer unaffiliated with Google. Despite the independence of the project, it has drawn attention from prominent figures within Google. In an earlier post, Logan Kilpatrick, product lead for Google AI Studio, reported Gemini’s progress toward the in-game Elite Four, highlighting it had “earned its 5th badge” — a level unmatched by comparable models at the time.
Pichai joined in on the fun, jokingly referring to the achievement as “API, Artificial Pokémon Intelligence :)” as excitement grew among the AI and gaming communities alike.
Inspired by Claude, But Gemini Crosses the Finish Line First
Gemini’s Pokémon journey mirrors a similar initiative launched by Anthropic with its Claude AI, which had been training to beat Pokémon Red, a counterpart to Pokémon Blue. While Claude’s efforts have gained traction, it hasn’t completed the game yet. That left Gemini to claim bragging rights as the first LLM-powered AI to conquer a mainline Pokémon title.
Still, Joel Z cautioned fans against making head-to-head comparisons. “Please don’t consider this a benchmark for how well an LLM can play Pokémon,” he wrote on Twitch. “The models rely on different data, tools, and harness setups, so direct performance comparisons aren’t meaningful.”
Behind the Victory: Agent Harnesses and Developer Support
Neither Gemini nor Claude plays autonomously. To navigate the game, they use agent harnesses that deliver annotated screenshots and context-enhanced overlays, which the AI interprets to generate gameplay decisions. These outputs are then translated into controller inputs via the supporting framework.
Joel Z admitted that he provided behind-the-scenes support — what he called “developer interventions” — during Gemini’s run. However, he maintains that the help didn’t amount to cheating.
“My interventions improve Gemini’s overall reasoning and decision-making,” he explained. “There are no direct instructions or walkthroughs. The closest was alerting Gemini about a known bug involving the Lift Key from a Rocket Grunt, which had been patched in later game versions.”
He added that the entire framework remains under active development, suggesting further enhancements in how LLMs approach gaming tasks.
The moment Gemini beats Pokémon Blue may not rewrite the future of gaming, but it signals yet another step in testing the limits of AI reasoning, strategy, and adaptability—one digital badge at a time.
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