OpenAI and Google outdo the mathletes, but not each other

by Amelia Forsyth


AI fashions from OpenAI and Google DeepMind achieved gold-medal scores within the 2025 Worldwide Math Olympiad (IMO), one of many world’s oldest and most difficult excessive school-level math competitions, the businesses independently introduced in latest days.

The outcomes underscore simply how briskly AI programs are advancing, and but, how evenly matched Google and OpenAI appear to be within the AI race. AI firms are competing fiercely for the general public notion of being forward within the AI race: an intangible battle of “vibes” that may have massive implications for securing high AI expertise. A number of AI researchers come from backgrounds in aggressive math, so benchmarks like IMO imply greater than others.

Final yr, Google scored a silver medal at IMO utilizing a “formal” system, which means it required people to translate issues right into a machine‑readable format. This yr, each OpenAI and Google entered “casual” programs into the competitors, which had been in a position to ingest questions and generate proof‑based mostly solutions in pure language. Each firms declare their AI fashions accurately answered 5 out of six questions on IMO’s take a look at, scoring larger than most highschool college students and Google’s AI mannequin from final yr, with out requiring any human-machine translation.

In interviews with TechCrunch, researchers behind OpenAI and Google’s IMO efforts claimed that these gold-medal performances symbolize breakthroughs round AI reasoning fashions in non-verifiable domains. Whereas AI reasoning fashions are inclined to do effectively on questions with easy solutions, reminiscent of simple arithmetic or coding duties, these programs battle on duties with extra ambiguous options, reminiscent of shopping for an ideal chair or serving to with complicated analysis.

Nonetheless, Google is elevating questions round how OpenAI carried out and introduced its gold-medal IMO efficiency. In any case, for those who’re going to enter AI fashions right into a math contest for top schoolers, you may as effectively argue like youngsters.

Shortly after OpenAI introduced its feat on Saturday morning, Google DeepMind’s CEO and researchers took to social media to slam OpenAI for announcing its gold medal prematurely — shortly after IMO introduced which excessive schoolers had gained the competitors on Friday night time — and for not having their mannequin’s take a look at formally evaluated by IMO.

Thang Luong, a Google DeepMind senior researcher and lead for the IMO mission, instructed TechCrunch that Google waited to announce its IMO outcomes to respect the scholars taking part within the competitors.

Techcrunch occasion

San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025

Luong stated that Google has been working with IMO’s organizers since final yr in preparation for the take a look at and wished to have the IMO president’s blessing and official grading earlier than announcing its official results, which it did on Monday morning.

“The IMO organizers have their grading guideline,” Luong stated. “So any analysis that’s not based mostly on that guideline couldn’t make any declare about gold-medal degree [performance].”

Noam Brown, a senior OpenAI researcher who labored on the IMO mannequin, instructed TechCrunch that IMO reached out to OpenAI a number of months in the past about taking part in a proper math competitors, however the ChatGPT-maker declined as a result of it was engaged on pure language programs that it thought had been extra value pursuing. Brown says OpenAI didn’t know IMO was conducting a casual take a look at with Google.

OpenAI says it employed third-party evaluators — three former IMO medalists who understood the grading system — to grade its AI mannequin’s efficiency. After OpenAI discovered of its gold-medal rating, Brown stated the corporate reached out to IMO, which then instructed the corporate to attend to announce till after IMO’s Friday night time award ceremony.

IMO didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark.

Google isn’t essentially incorrect right here — it did undergo a extra official, rigorous course of to attain its gold-medal rating — however the debate could miss the larger image: AI fashions from a number of main AI labs are bettering shortly. Nations from all over the world despatched their brightest college students to compete at IMO this yr, and just some % of them scored in addition to OpenAI and Google’s AI fashions did.

Whereas OpenAI used to have a major lead over the business, it definitely feels as if the race is extra carefully matched than any firm wish to admit. OpenAI is anticipated to launch GPT-5 within the coming months, and the corporate definitely hopes to offer off the impression that it nonetheless leads the AI business.





Source link

You may also like

Leave a Comment