Gemini Secures IMO Gold, Draws Rare Praise From Elon Musk as Google's AI Hits New Milestone in User Growth

Google's artificial intelligence system Gemini has become the first machine to win a gold medal at the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), solving five of six problems at the 2025 competition in Australia and earning unprecedented praise from tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The breakthrough achievement, which saw Gemini score 35 points to reach the gold-medal standard, represents a watershed moment in AI development. The IMO, traditionally dominated by the world's brightest secondary school students, has never before witnessed a machine reach this level of mathematical problem-solving prowess.

The timing of Gemini's triumph coincides with another significant milestone for the AI platform. Industry sources indicate that the system has reached a new threshold in user adoption, although specific figures remain confidential. This dual success underscores Google's strengthening position in the increasingly competitive AI marketplace.

Elon Musk Hails Gemini's IMO Gold

Elon Musk heaped praise on Google Gemini, an AI system from Google DeepMind, for its remarkable achievement: winning a gold medal at the annual International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), a top competition for high school students.

This accomplishment marks a historic first: a machine achieving such a high level of success in the competition. Gemini solved five out of six problems at the 2025 event, held this month in Australia, as announced by Google in a recent blog post.

'An advanced version of Gemini Deep Think solved five out of the six IMO problems perfectly, earning 35 total points, and achieving gold-medal level performance,' Google's Thang Luong and Edward Lockhart noted.

The announcement of this accomplishment originally came from Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis. Subsequently, Google CEO Sundar Pichai amplified the news by resharing Hassabis' post on X, offering congratulations to the Google AI team.

Musk, who recently admitted he'd 'resisted Al for too long. Living in denial,' congratulated Pichai on the achievement. 'Congrats,' the 54-year-old tech mogul wrote, to which Pichai replied, 'Thanks.'

Why Gemini's Math Gold Matters for AI

Google Gemini's 'gold' medal at the annual Mathematical Olympiad highlights the swift progress leading AI companies are making in demanding areas like mathematics, science, and computer coding.

This type of technology has the potential to enhance research for mathematicians and scientists, as well as simplify tasks for seasoned programmers. 'We solved these problems fully in natural language. That means there was no human intervention — at all,' Thang Luong, a senior staff research scientist at Google DeepMind, explained in an interview.

Pioneering AI in Math Competitions

Last year, Google DeepMind unveiled two math-focused systems, AlphaGeometry and AlphaProof, which secured 'silver medal' performance at the IMO by solving four out of six problems. This marked the first instance in which a machine reached 'silver medal' status.

Beyond its groundbreaking mathematical achievements, Gemini is also experiencing a remarkable surge in adoption, powering significant growth across Google's broader business.

Gemini Drives Google's Strong Q2 Growth

Google's second-quarter 2025 earnings demonstrate AI's growing influence across its major platforms, including Search, YouTube, Cloud, and the Gemini assistant, with reported revenue reaching $96.4 billion (£71.53 billion) – a 14% increase from the same period last year, according to The Economic Times. Pichai largely credits this surge to the company's increased investment in AI technologies.

'AI is positively impacting every part of the business,' the top executive noted in the company's press release. The figures support this.

Gemini App's Rapid User Adoption

Google's AI-powered services, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, are gaining widespread adoption globally. AI Overviews, which provides AI-generated summaries and improved search insights, now reaches over 2 billion monthly users across more than 200 countries and 40 languages.

Meanwhile, AI Mode has surpassed 100 million monthly active users, particularly in the US and India. At the core of this AI revolution sits the Gemini app — Google's next-generation AI assistant.

Monthly active users of Gemini have surged to over 450 million, with daily usage requests climbing by more than 50% from the previous quarter. This shows strong momentum in both user engagement and the assistant's overall utility.

What's certain is that Gemini's IMO gold medal represents more than a symbolic victory. It demonstrates that artificial intelligence has crossed a threshold, matching and potentially exceeding human performance in domains requiring the highest levels of abstract reasoning.

For an industry measured in rapid iterations and constant breakthroughs, this particular milestone may prove especially significant in retrospect.