OpenAI and Google have both announced that they have received gold medal scores in the International Math Olympiad, that's the IMO, this year in 2025. Now, I want to break down exactly what this competition is, because it might not be as, I guess, intense as some people would think it is. And, like, I'll also preface this by saying this is really impressive, but I'll break down exactly what it is, why they've achieved this. And I think most hilariously, I cannot do this podcast episode without covering all of the drama that is actually going on right now between OpenAI and Google.
Google's throwing some massive shade over at OpenAI for the way that they announced their results, which technically seems to have been against some rules and stuff. So, anyways, we're going to get into all of that. Overall, these AM models are progressing very fast, I think, is a big takeaway. But I do need to explain this, I think, for people to fully understand the context of the situation here.
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All right, let's get into everything going on between OpenAI and Google. So, this kind of started with a tweet, which is from, well, actually, backing up a week ago, almost, or last week, OpenAI announced that they had a sheet of score. So, basically, that means they got four out of five questions correct on the Math Olympiad this year. So, four out of five is a gold medal score.
These are really complex problems, and this is usually competed on by high school students, and so, you know, people in the end of high school are going to go and compete in this. Okay, so, that was last week, and then we just got the news that Google also got a gold medal. And then I heard this, I was like, oh, that's funny, like Google must have, you know, heard OpenAI did it, and they tried to compete. I wasn't super aware of the competition, didn't realize they were both competing at the same time in the same competition, just OpenAI, I guess, wanted to get a leg up on Google and announce the results first because it made big headlines, and now it almost feels like a tag on.
Google's like, hey, we did it too. Google evidently is not happy to feel like they are a tag on to this. So, this is Demis Hassabi. He is a Nobel laureate.
He's co-founder and CEO of Google. DeepMind, if you probably know him. This is what he said on Twitter. He said, official results are in.
Gemini achieved gold medal level in the International Mathematical Olympiad. You know what this is exactly like? This is exactly like when car companies will make, you know, they'll show off in, you know, Mercedes will have this absolutely insane car that they built, and it goes and races and sets all sorts of records. At that, what is it, the, people are going to hate me for it, but it's the famous racetrack in Germany, the Nombrick, or I know that's not the name.
Y'all can hate me for forgetting the name of that, but the famous racetrack in Germany that everyone sets the records at, they do not send production cars to that racetrack. They make all sorts of insane modifications. I remember when Porsche and Tesla a few years ago were having this big competition there, and Tesla was like, look, we can make this electric car just to, like, beat all the records. And, uh, but they sent this, like, Tesla Model S Plaid with a whole bunch of customizations that were not in, uh, you know, your standard Tesla's and a bunch of records.
But the thing is, it's like, we show off the absolute fastest our car could be, but we never actually put that car into production, right? So it's kind of, like, annoying for consumers. This is exactly like these AI models. They're like, there was an advanced version of Gemini Deep Think.
It's like, basic people don't get it. We just, like, give it tons of compute and tons of money to spend on these questions. If we give unlimited money in compute, it's probably cool questions, but for your Gemini version you're using, you do not get any of these features. That was kind of funny.
They said, our model operated end-to-end in natural language, producing rigorous mathematical proofs directly from the official problem description, all within the 4.5-hour competition time limit. We'll make it a version of this Deep Think model available to a set of trusted testers, including mathematicians, before rolling it out to Google AI Ultra subscribers. Okay, unlike the cars, they will be giving some people this. Now, Google AI Ultra, go look at the price tiers on that.
It's not cheap, so definitely most people are not getting this, but kudos to them for making it available. Okay, now we get to the drama. So basically, these models are getting way better, and I will bring up that these models have actually attempted this test before. This is the first time they've taken the test.
So I believe Google got a silver medal score last time it took this, but here's the caveat. OpenAI and Google, last time that they took this test, probably I think it was last year, when they took it, they essentially allowed the researchers to take the math questions and convert them into something that the AI model could understand, right? So like, if there is a picture of a really complex math problem, the researchers could like write it down in like a computerized text format that's easy to understand and do. This time, they did not do that.
These models were just basically with their vision, with everything that they had, were able to look at the problems and solve them to this level. So this is actually a really big step, I think, in that. Like, obviously, we're not going to have mathematicians sitting there breaking down questions to make it easier for AI models to solve that definitely feels like cheating. So this is really cool.
They were able to see the problem and they solved it better than before, from silver to gold, and they did the whole thing itself. So I am impressed, like, considering very impressed on that, the progress. But now we get into the drama with OpenAI. Why did OpenAI release theirs a week before Google?
What happened here? Then he says, by the way, as an aside, we didn't announce on Friday because we respected the IMO's board's original request that all AI labs, Kafka, OpenAI, he didn't say that, I did, share their results only after the official results had been verified by the independent experts and the students had rightly received the acclimation they deserve. We've now been given permission to share our results and are pleased to have been part of this inaugural cohort to have our model results officially graded and certified by the IMO coordinators and experts receiving the first official gold level performance grading for an AI system. So he said receiving the first official gold level performance, but OpenAI also got one.
The one thing I will say, so, I mean, the first, also the second, the tie with OpenAI, you both got a gold medal status, but whatever. But I did think it was interesting here. So basically what happened was OpenAI, I think TechCrunch reached out to them and was like, what the heck happened? How come you guys did your results early?
They weren't supposed to. Basically the IMO was like, hey, come take the test with all the students and then let's give the students their flowers so this whole thing is just a big celebration about AI model progress and we'll announce whoever wins and you can do it. Well, OpenAI didn't really want to wait for that. So apparently what happened was OpenAI hired their own researchers after it took the test to go and look at the results and grade it themselves.
Typically, you would wait for the IMO to have their researchers or their officials to go look at the content and then grade it. So apparently OpenAI hired third-party evaluators, three former IMO medalists who understood grading systems. So to be fair, OpenAI, they did a really good job. They probably paid a lot of money.
They found people that formerly worked there. They used them to grade the IMO's performance. After they learned of their gold medal score, the company reached out to the IMO, which then told them to wait to announce until after the Friday night ceremony. Did they do that?
No, they didn't. They just announced it anyways because they were excited or whatever. So yeah, Google's not really wrong here. They probably should have waited.
One thing that I will say is interesting is it feels like OpenAI used to have a huge lead in the industry. It feels like it's a lot closer now. Google has roared right up next to them. We have XAI.
According to the benchmark, people get mad at me all the time. You go read some YouTube comments. I mentioned recently that XAI was as good as a PhD researcher on a lot of topics, which is basically what their benchmark results showed. But in any case, Google got mad at me.
I understand all the controversy around XAI. I think they do a lot of dumb things. I think they're doing some smart things. Whatever.
Don't get mad at me. Don't shoot the messenger. The benchmarks are really good. They have best benchmarks.
It doesn't mean it's best in the real world. You all can argue that. But it has the best benchmark. So there's a bunch of these top companies.
And it feels like they're a lot closer. Now, I will give the caveat that OpenAI allegedly is going to release GPT-5 soon. But I don't put too much weight in the hearsay of who's going to release what next. Because I like to just play with the cards that are on the ground.
I feel like I've been disappointed by a bunch of big announcements of, oh my gosh, this latest model GPT-4.5 is going to be insane. And it wasn't as crazy as you might have thought or hoped for. Or it was too slow to be too useful or whatever. There's all these different things.
I'm not saying point of fingers at OpenAI. All the companies. So I will say it feels like the industry is quite matched right now. And every company that releases the latest model is the best model.
We just had XAI. Before that, it was Google. Before that, it was Anthropik. Before that, it was OpenAI.
So it seems to just kind of go in a circle. But in any case, what's going to happen more about it? It feels like it's pretty evenly matched right now. No one is like leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else.
And you would hope not. The only one I feel like that is leaps and bounds behind is Apple. He's like a million miles under the sea. 10,000 leagues under the sea.
And then we have, of course, Meta who feels like they're lagging behind. But Zuckerberg is spending billions of dollars. The latest is that he offered a researcher 1.2 billion dollars in AI researcher over four years from OpenAI to come join Meta's super intelligence team. And apparently, they turned it down.
Now, not all of them have turned it down. Many have actually left OpenAI to go over to Meta. Basically, Meta has to look at what the value of OpenAI shares are that that person has that if they leave, they'll lose the best team. They're like, it's the golden handcuffs, right?
Like, I can't leave OpenAI because I have like half of, you know, I have $500 million worth of shares that are going to invest over the next four years. And Zuckerberg's like, that's fine. We'll just pay you for whatever those are worth. Just come over and get started now and you'll get your money and get paid for those shares.
So it's been pretty crazy. And so I expect them to catch up quickly based off of the money that they're spending on it. But they're definitely not, I feel like, at the head of the pack right now. So it feels like a lot of these companies are pretty close.
And while it doesn't really matter who announced at first OpenAI or Google in the same week, basically the models had the same results. So they both have gold medals. Now, beyond all the drama and who's best, whatever, I think this is a really good point to just say these models have progressed so much faster than I actually anticipated in the last year. It's very impressive that on this particular test, they went from silver to gold and to be able to do it all by themselves.
We're going to see some amazing advancements. I'm really excited. Hey, if you enjoyed the episode today, if you learned anything new about these AI models and basically what's going on, I would love for you to leave a review of the podcast. It's the number one way you could say thank you.
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