A Year Late, Claude Finally Beats Pokémon

Credit: ClaudePlaysPokemon Elevator Shanty by Kurukkoo Disclaimer: like some previous posts in this series, this was not primarily written by me, but by a friend. I did substantial editing, however. ClaudePlaysPokemon feat. Opus 4.7 has finally beaten Pokémon Red, fulfilling the challenge set over a year ago when LLMs playing Pokémon went briefly, slightly viral , until Gemini 2.5 Pro suddenly beat Pokémon Blue in May 2025, beating Anthropic at their own challenge by using a stronger harness. Claude's victory in May 2026. I'm still proud of you, Claude! Let's get the throat-clearing out of the way: this doesn't make 4.7 a clear breakthrough in intelligence over 4.6 or 4.5. It's smarter, yes, as we'll discuss below, but not by something one could honestly call a big leap. Rather, step changes have finally accumulated to the point of victory. And to give other models their fair shake: after criticism over its elaborate harness, [1] GeminiPlaysPokemon has beaten Pokémon with progressively