Kimi-Researcher: how Moonshot AI is redefining agentic intelligence with reinforcement learning
Sometimes, taking a different path makes all the difference. While major players like Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity rushed to release near-identical “Deep Research” tools, China’s Moonshot AI quietly went another way and made a strong impression.
Meet Kimi-Researcher: a different kind of AI agent
Moonshot AI’s Kimi-Researcher is not just another chatbot with access to search. It is a true agentic AI: a thinking model that takes 23 reasoning steps per task, visits over 200 websites and solves problems through exploration, not instruction.
Instead of relying on prompt engineering or modular workflows, Kimi-Researcher was trained from scratch using pure reinforcement learning.
It started with low performance and learned everything step by step by trying, failing, and improving.
What makes it stand out
Kimi-Researcher uses three powerful tools:
- A fast internal search tool
- A browser that can navigate and read the web
- A code tool for writing and testing solutions
Through these tools, it shows real signs of emergent behavior like comparing conflicting facts, refining its own assumptions, and checking multiple versions of the same source. These are not hard-coded actions. They are learned strategies.
Its performance backs it up too: 26.9 percent on Humanity’s Last Exam, a score that rivals the best results from Google and OpenAI.
Rysyth's Insights
At Rysysth, we see models like Kimi-Researcher as a strong signal of where AI is heading. This isn't about smarter prompts. It is about agents that figure things out for themselves.
What excites us most is the way the model demonstrates judgment, persistence, and even uncertainty management. It feels less like a shortcut tool and more like a thinking partner. If this is what end-to-end learning can produce, then agentic intelligence is just beginning to show its real value.
What’s next
Moonshot AI will be open-sourcing both the base model and the trained version soon. Early access is already available at kimi.com. If you’re curious about agent-based AI or want to explore what this means for your business, let’s connect.
Until next time.