{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-07-23-imo-2026-ai-perfect-scores","date":"2026-07-23","date_precision":"day","short_title":"AI systems score a perfect 42/42 at IMO 2026, officially graded","deck":null,"takeaway":null,"category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":5,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"TechXplore: AI catches up with humans to score 100% at top math contest","url":"https://techxplore.com/news/2026-07-ai-humans-score-math-contest.html","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"techxplore.com"},{"n":2,"title":"SCMP: RedNote's AI model first to achieve flawless score at maths Olympiad","url":"https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3361482/worlds-first-ai-model-earn-perfect-score-maths-olympiad-comes-chinas-rednote","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"scmp.com"},{"n":3,"title":"Taipei Times: AI models score 100 percent at top math competition","url":"https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2026/07/24/2003861308","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"taipeitimes.com"},{"n":4,"title":"Malay Mail: Huawei, Xiaohongshu AI storm Olympiad","url":"https://www.malaymail.com/news/tech-gadgets/2026/07/23/huawei-xiaohongshu-ai-storm-olympiad-join-maths-elite-with-perfect-100pc-score/228720","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"malaymail.com"},{"n":5,"title":"France 24 / AFP: AI catches up with humans to score 100% at top maths contest","url":"https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260723-ai-catches-up-with-humans-to-score-100-at-top-maths-contest","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"france24.com"},{"n":6,"title":"Deedy Das on X: self-run IMO 2026 results for frontier models","url":"https://x.com/deedydas/status/2079409461874332066","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":7,"title":"NVIDIA AI on X: Nemotron 3 Ultra graded 30/42 by IMO team","url":"https://x.com/NVIDIAAI/status/2079642933058244704","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"}],"official":0,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-07","orgs":["Huawei","Xiaohongshu (RedNote)"],"title":"AI systems score a perfect 42/42 at IMO 2026, officially graded","summary":"For the first time AI achieved full marks at the International Mathematical Olympiad: at IMO 2026 in Shanghai, Huawei's 'Celia' and Xiaohongshu/RedNote's 'dots-note-3.0' each scored 42/42, with solutions graded by IMO organisers after the human contest; only 7 of 666 human contestants got perfect scores. Other labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Moonshot, Axiom) also claimed 42/42.","key_facts":["Perfect 42/42 (all six problems) for Huawei 'Celia' and RedNote 'dots-note-3.0' under the IMO's formal AI evaluation process","Process: AI received problems only after human contestants finished; strict time limit; no human intervention; graded by IMO organisers","Humans: 7 of 666 contestants achieved full marks (IMO held in Shanghai)","Per commentator Deedy Das (quoted by TechXplore), OpenAI, Anthropic, Axiom Math and Moonshot's Kimi K3 also reached 42/42 (not all officially graded)","Context: 2024 best AI = silver (4/6 problems over 2-3 days); 2025 = gold-level 35/42 (Google DeepMind, OpenAI)","No AI was an official medal-eligible contestant"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["math","reasoning","imo","china","milestone"],"science":{"field":"mathematics","subfield":"olympiad problem solving","problem":"International Mathematical Olympiad 2026 problems (Shanghai)","result":"First officially graded perfect AI scores at the IMO: Huawei 'Celia' and RedNote 'dots-note-3.0' each solved all six problems for 42/42; several other labs self-reported 42/42.","open_since":"","ai_system":["Huawei Celia","RedNote dots-note-3.0"],"human_role":"Autonomous; problems given after the human contest, no human intervention","verification":{"key":"expert","label":"Expert-checked","text":"Graded by IMO organisers (for Celia and dots-note-3.0); other 42/42 claims self-administered"},"status":"confirmed","shock":"Only 7 of 666 human contestants got full marks, and the first perfect AI scores came from Huawei and a social-media company rather than a frontier US lab.","kind":"other"},"body_md":"## What happened\n\nAt IMO 2026 (Shanghai), several AI systems solved all six problems. The two officially graded perfect scores came from Chinese companies not usually considered frontier labs:\nHuawei (Celia) and Xiaohongshu/RedNote (dots-note-3.0, its first IMO entry). Multiple US labs and Moonshot also reported perfect solutions. Commentator Deedy Das: \"The frontier of AI has officially moved well past IMO math.\"\n\n## Why it matters\n\nOlympiad math is now saturated as an AI benchmark just one year after the first gold-level results; attention shifts to research-level math (FrontierMath Tier 4, Erdős problems).","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-07-16-moonshot-kimi-k3","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-07-16-moonshot-kimi-k3/","date":"2026-07-16","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3, a 2.8T-parameter open-weights multimodal model","deck":null,"takeaway":null,"category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":5,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":5,"official":1,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-11","orgs":["Moonshot AI"]},{"id":"2026-05-20-ai-disproves-erdos-unit-distance-conjecture","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-05-20-ai-disproves-erdos-unit-distance-conjecture/","date":"2026-05-20","date_precision":"day","short_title":"OpenAI model disproves Erdős's 80-year-old unit distance conjecture","deck":null,"takeaway":"This is the moment AI crossed from solving competition problems to settling a famous open research conjecture, reshaping debate about AI's role in mathematics.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":5,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Result confirmed"]},"sources":9,"official":3,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-29","orgs":["OpenAI"]}],"people":[],"posts":[{"id":"x-deedydas-2079409461874332066","title":"Deedy Das: Fable, Sol, K3 and Axiom all score 42/42 on IMO 2026","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/x-deedydas-2079409461874332066/"},{"id":"2026-07-21-nvidiaai-nemotron-3-ultra-imo-2026","title":"NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Ultra graded 30/42 by the IMO team at IMO 2026","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/2026-07-21-nvidiaai-nemotron-3-ultra-imo-2026/"}],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-07","type":"edit","text":"Science block: kind: other (not a long-open problem; listed with other AI science results, not in the open-problems count)"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"edit","text":"Added science block (science & math tab)"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"edit","text":"Added primary/secondary links during a verification pass"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"edit","text":"Added post link(s) (1) from Google/DeepMind + math posts pass"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-07","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-07"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":84,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":23,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":114,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":53,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":"https://postcutoff.com/s/ai-systems-score-perfect"}