# Explainer: K2 & Math Olympiad Golds

DevFeed: [Explainer: K2 & Math Olympiad Golds](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/explainer-k2-math-olympiad-golds-33471.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://timkellogg.me/blog/2025/07/19/olympiad>)

Published: 2025-07-19T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Tim Kellogg](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/tim-kellogg.md>)

Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [multi-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/multi-agents.md>), [Chain-of-thought](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/chain-of-thought.md>), [Claude](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude.md>), [deepseek](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/deepseek.md>), [Model Context Protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/model-context-protocol.md>), [OpenAI](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/openai.md>), [computer-use](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/computer-use.md>)

Tags: [agentic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agentic.md>), [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [benchmarks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/benchmarks.md>), [chain-of-thought](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/chain-of-thought.md>), [context-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/context-engineering.md>), [cost](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cost.md>), [explainer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/explainer.md>), [multi-agent](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multi-agent.md>), [multi-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multi-agents.md>), [openai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/openai.md>), [tokens](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tokens.md>), [tools](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tools.md>)

## AI overview

This explainer reviews major AI-agent developments from January through July 2025, focusing on K2 and the International Math Olympiad gold result. It argues that K2's strong agentic performance without a long chain-of-thought trace raises questions about whether extended thinking is necessary for effective agents, while noting that shorter reasoning can reduce token costs.

## Source excerpt

the best way to emphasize the importance of this week's developments is to go all the way back to January and see how we got here.