This is insane.
New AI model from Samsung, 10,000x smaller than DeepSeek and Gemini 2.5 Pro just beat them on ARC-AGI 1 and 2
Samsungโs Tiny Recursive Model (TRM) is about 10,000x smaller than typical LLMs yet smarter because it thinks recursively instead of just predicting text. It first drafts an answer, then builds a hidden "scratchpad" for reasoning, repeatedly critiques and refines its logic (up to 16 times), and produces improved answers each cycle.
This approach shows that architecture and reasoning loops (not just size), can drive intelligence. It enables powerful, efficient models that run cheaply, validate neuro symbolic ideas, and open highest quality reasoning to far more applications.
Acceleration is everywhere
My brain broke when I read this paper.
A tiny 7 Million parameter model just beat DeepSeek-R1, Gemini 2.5 pro, and o3-mini at reasoning on both ARG-AGI 1 and ARC-AGI 2.
It's called Tiny Recursive Model (TRM) from Samsung.
How can a model 10,000x smaller be smarter?
Here's how it works:
1. Draft an Initial Answer: Unlike an LLM that writes word-by-word, TRM first generates a quick, complete "draft" of the solution. Think of this as its first rough guess.
2. Create a "Scratchpad": It then creates a separate space for its internal thoughts, a latent reasoning "scratchpad." This is where the real magic happens.
3. Intensely Self-Critique: The model enters an intense inner loop. It compares its draft answer to the original problem and refines its reasoning on the scratchpad over and over (6 times in a row), asking itself, "Does my logic hold up? Where are the errors?"
4. Revise the Answer: After this focused "thinking," it uses the improved logic from its scratchpad to create a brand new, much better draft of the final answer.
5. Repeat until Confident: The entire process, draft, think, revise, is repeated up to 16 times. Each cycle pushes the model closer to a correct, logically sound solution.
Why this matters:
Business Leaders: This is what algorithmic advantage looks like. While competitors are paying massive inference costs for brute-force scale, a smarter, more efficient model can deliver superior performance for a tiny fraction of the cost.
Researchers: This is a major validation for neuro-symbolic ideas. The model's ability to recursively "think" before "acting" demonstrates that architecture, not just scale, can be a primary driver of reasoning ability.
Practitioners: SOTA reasoning is no longer gated behind billion-dollar GPU clusters. This paper provides a highly efficient, parameter-light blueprint for building specialized reasoners that can run anywhere.
This isn't just scaling down; it's a completely different, more deliberate way of solving problems.