AI Breakthroughs, Apple’s India Push, Meta Reshuffle & Google’s Nuclear Bet

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Advanced version of Gemini with Deep Think officially achieves gold-medal standard at the International Mathematical Olympiad
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• In IMO 2025, the advanced Gemini model (with “Deep Think” mode) solved 5 out of 6 problems, scoring 35 out of 42 points, achieving gold-medal level performance with solutions graded using the same standards as human participants.

• Unlike last year’s silver-level performance using formal languages and multi-day computation, this iteration operated end-to-end in natural language and produced rigorous proofs within the 4.5-hour contest limit.

• The model leverages “parallel thinking” and reinforcement learning, trained on high-quality solution corpora and strategic hints, and will be tested by mathematicians before rollout to Google AI Ultra subscribers.

Google: Rethinking how we measure AI intelligence
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• Google DeepMind and Kaggle introduced the “Kaggle Game Arena,” an open-source benchmarking platform where AI models compete head-to-head in strategic games to evaluate reasoning and planning beyond static benchmarks.

• Games offer clear success signals and scalable difficulty, allowing evaluation of long-term planning, strategic adaptation, and model reasoning through dynamic environments.

• The platform launched with a chess exhibition tournament on August 5, followed by all-play-all matchups to produce statistically robust rankings; future plans include expanding to Go, poker, video games, and more.

Google announced the next step in its nuclear energy plans
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• Google has entered a power purchase agreement with TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) to buy electricity from a next-gen nuclear reactor developed by Kairos Power in Oak Ridge, Tennessee—marking the first such advance-level nuclear contract with a U.S. utility.

• The reactor, called Hermes 2, uses molten fluoride salt coolant and low-pressure design to reduce costs and complexity compared to traditional water-cooled reactors; it’s expected online by 2030.

• Google aims to support deployment of 500 MW of Kairos-developed nuclear capacity by 2035, receiving clean energy attributes from TVA to support its sustainability goals.

Apple's iPhone 17 Manufacturing Expands Across Five Indian Plants
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• Apple is scaling up iPhone manufacturing in India across five facilities—including new Tata Group plants in Tamil Nadu and a Foxconn site near Bangalore—as it diversifies away from China.

• For the first time, all four iPhone 17 models will be produced in India ahead of their launch next month; India shipped $7.5 billion worth of iPhones between April and July, compared to $17 billion for the entire previous year.

• Apple’s move helps mitigate U.S. tariffs (India-made electronics remain exempt) and underscores accelerating shifts in global smartphone manufacturing toward India.

Meta is shaking up its AI org, again
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• Meta has officially restructured its AI division into a new entity called “Meta Superintelligence Labs” (MSL), as confirmed by an internal memo following earlier reports.

• At the center is “TBD Labs,” led by Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, focusing on foundational models like LLaMA; three additional groups will focus on research, product integration, and infrastructure.

• The shake-up reflects Meta’s effort to accelerate AI progress amid competitive pressure from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, with active involvement from Mark Zuckerberg.