Sakana AI· Sakana modelsResearch paper

Sakana AI Agent Wins AtCoder Heuristic Contest (First AI to Place 1st)

Sakana AI's ALE-Agent achieved 1st place in the AtCoder Heuristic Contest 058, outperforming 804 human participants, marking the first known instance of an AI agent winning a major optimization programming contest in real-time. The agent operated at a cost of approximately $1,300 and autonomously discovered a novel algorithm.

From the source

Sakana AI’s “ALE-Agent” achieved a historic milestone by securing 1st place in the AtCoder Heuristic Contest 058 , outperforming 804 human participants.

sakana.ai

Announced

04 Jan 2026 15:00 UTC

Detected

28 Aug 2026 21:48 UTC (+236d after)