# Developer trains tiny AI on RTX 3080 Ti to play Pokémon Red

> A hobbyist built a 12.5 million‑parameter world model on a single RTX 3080 Ti to pick a starter in Pokémon Red.

Oossa · 2026-09-30 · https://oossa.com/en/developer-trains-tiny-ai-on-rtx-3080-ti-to-play-pokemon-red

Produced and translated with AI assistance. Check the original sources below.

A developer known as “stmonty” trained a small AI called a world model on one RTX 3080 Ti GPU. The model has about 12.5 million parameters and learns to choose a starter Pokémon from a saved game. The work follows research by Yann LeCun on world models and was posted on the developer’s blog on Sept. 20, 2026. It runs locally on a consumer‑grade graphics card.

## The facts

- Model size: ~12.5 million parameters
- Blog post date: Sept. 20, 2026

## Why it matters

It shows that modest hardware can run AI that understands game states, lowering the barrier for hobbyist AI experiments.

## Sources & references

1. [Developer trains a small AI on a single RTX 3080 Ti gaming GPU to 'play' Pokémon Red](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/developer-trains-a-small-ai-on-a-single-rtx-3080-ti-gaming-gpu-to-play-pokemon-red-model-discovered-what-each-button-does-by-predicting-what-happens-next) – Tom's Hardware, 2026-09-30

Last updated: 2026-09-30