Why the World’s Best AI Systems Are Still So Bad at Pokémon

Right now, live on Twitch, you can watch three of the world’s smartest AI systems—GPT 5.2, Claude Opus 4.5, and Gemini 3 Pro—doing their best to beat classic Pokémon games. At least by human standards, they are not very good.

The systems are slow, overconfident, and often confused. But if you want to understand what these systems are currently capable of in the wider world, tracking their efforts to become Pokémon champions will tell you a lot more than the often inscrutable benchmark numbers that accompany each new model release.