Game / interactiveClaude Opus 5.5 lineage (site claims)
A playable coastal scene with a helmet, red scarf, two-bone IK, Verlet cloth, Gerstner waves, day/night cycles and fish catching. claude-opus-5-5.riba2534.cn
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CHRONOLOGY
Timeline
Explore works, community discussions and changing forms by date. The 1988 entry is a film predecessor; original date precision is preserved.
2026-09
41 recordsGame / interactive
AnimationLuna / Sol / Astra × 5 effort
A side-by-side collection of 15 animated SVGs.
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AnimationClaude Fable 5.1 max
Max effort: 65,927 output tokens, 13m 54s, $3.30. A blue cap and fish in the basket. The author called it Anthropic's best pelican yet.
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Animation
Static SVGGPT-6 Astra multi-effort grid
A grid comparing reasoning effort levels. Community comments said Astra finally looked more like a bird actually riding a bicycle.
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3D workGPT-6 Astra medium + local Blender
The classic prompt moved from SVG to a local 3D content-creation tool. Background and visual flourishes were added later.
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3D workunspecified regression pair
A short-prompt regression test covering instruction following, subject recognition, structure, coordinated animation, visual organization and context retention.
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Animation14 models; gpt-6-astra 98
A scoring rubric assigned 25 points to pelican features, 25 to bicycle structure and 30 to animation kinematics. Astra used two-link IK.
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3D work12 models, Astra 1st (94)
The source's ranking: Astra 94, GPT-5.6 Sol 88, GLM-5.3 86, Kimi K3 83, GLM-5.3-Flash 81, Sonnet 5 78, DS-V4.1-Flash 76, Qwen3.8-Max 74.
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Video6 models Space Invaders
Simon tried another prompt in one shot, without editing the code.
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VideoMonitoring GPT-6 Astra regressions
CodexRadar's “Pelican Cup” collected nearly 100 submissions to monitor possible Astra regressions.
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Game / interactiveGPT-6 Astra
A different species. Reported cost: about CNY 8 and 4 million tokens. Published at case.ccvibe.top, with added weather, night scenes and Mario-style gameplay.
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Animation
AnimationAstra/Sol/Luna multi-effort
Four effort levels side by side, with local file reading prohibited.
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Animation
AnimationStep 5 Preview / OpenCode V2
An example of a two-stage Chinese prompt. The connection dropped once; the author judged its aesthetics roughly on par with K3. Video length: about 11 seconds.
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Animation
Static SVGMythos / Astra
The author alleged that the model traced an image into 1.3 million characters of paths rather than reasoning spatially.
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Videosurvey
A Chinese timeline overview: unrecognizable in 2024, recognizable but incorrectly posed in 2025, static images reaching a ceiling in September 2026, then playable webpages.
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Text / referenceOpus 5.5 / GPT-6 Sol / Luna
A Japanese summary of Simon's comparison grid.
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Text / referenceHermes Agent -> FAL -> FLUX
Text-to-image rather than SVG, showing the prompt's spread to image models.
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3D work
AnimationOpus 5.5
A comparison of an elaborate 3D page with a simpler HTML/SVG animation, attributing the difference to the prompts.
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AnimationAstra / Gemini 3.8 Flash / DeepSeek 4.1 Flash
A comparison site with single-file HTML outputs from three models.
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Animation
AnimationGemini 4 Pro checkpoint 1 vs 2 (unofficial label)
Two checkpoints produced very different styles from the same prompt. Some commenters questioned whether this was an official Gemini 4 model. A widely discussed comparison.
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Static SVGunspecified
An overloaded variant combining the cycling pelican with Sun Wukong, Qin Shi Huang and combinatorics.
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Game / interactiveClaude Opus 5.5
A Japanese report on generating a 3D pelican cycling game from one prompt and deploying it to Cloudflare Pages.
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Text / referenceOpus 5.5 wave observation
An observation after Opus 5.5's release: users were testing one-shot completion with cycling pelicans, small games and Three.js cities.
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AnimationGemini 3.8 Flash (compared with Gemini 4 ckpt1 style)
The author reported a three-minute one-shot result and had previously suspected cheating. Compared with LuminaBench's Gemini 4 Pro ckpt1 style.
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Static SVGLongCat 2.5 Preview high
1m 52s. The classic prompt was tested as soon as the model launched.
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3D workOpus 5.5 vs GPT-6 Sol
Moving from “can it make 3D?” to “does it hold up in close-up?” Reported costs: Opus $48.11, Sol $34.55.
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VideoGPT-3.5 → GPT-6 montage
An evolution montage combining animations from multiple model generations, about 40 seconds long.
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Game / interactiveSpace Bunny Alpha via OpenRouter/OpenCode
An orange cap, yellow beak, blue outfit and red bicycle on a coastal road with a lighthouse and sailboat. San Francisco coordinates, fog/noon/sunset modes, a 38 km/h speed display and radio UI. Video: about 33 seconds.
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Static SVGrelay wrappers spoofing GPT-6 Astra
Relay services reportedly recognized the fixed prompt and returned a prebuilt SVG while spoofing model identity, undermining the test.
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AnimationLongCat 2.5 Preview
Generated in 58 seconds, with an awkward-looking result; 19,000 views.
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AnimationLongCat 2.5 Preview
The author rated it above Grok 4.7. The post advertised free access in OpenCode until October 10.
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AnimationOpus 5.5 on DB32 VM
A custom demoscene instruction set fitting IK and a cycling pelican into 4 KB.
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Animationalleged Gemini 4 Pro ckpts
A Turkish-language discussion of a LuminaBench comparison, questioning whether it really used Gemini 4.
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AnimationGemini 3.8 (claimed)
A Brazilian developer generated an HTML animation in one shot using an English prompt.
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Videomulti
A Chinese submission site stores source code and actual prompts without scores. The post's video is archived. Its t.co link resolves to the video, not a website; the site's domain remains unconfirmed.
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2026-08
8 records
Static SVGDeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 default vs high
Weak at the default setting, clearly better at high effort.
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Static SVGMuse Spark / 1.1 / 1.2
A visual comparison of three releases in the same model family.
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Static SVGQwen 3.7 27B 17GB GGUF
Described as the best local result, with engagement on the scale of 320,000 likes.
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3D work
Static SVG
Static SVG
VideoDeepSeek OSS 15min
Chinese open models tested for 15 minutes; DeepSeek needed two attempts.
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Animation2026-07
8 records
3D workOpenAI livestream 3D pelicans
An OpenAI livestream featured 3D pelicans riding a tricycle, a bicycle, a pony and another pelican.
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3D workSol · SDF pelican at high reasoning effort
A ray-marched SDF pelican on a teal bicycle, with a pouch beak, spokes and ground shadows. Compare the geometry with other runs from the same repository. The source marks this run unverified; it has not been independently reproduced.
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3D workFable · An SDF ride along a roadway
A max-effort response to the same SDF prompt: a pelican on a fat-tire bicycle, with a roadway and distant scenery. The source marks this run unverified; it has not been independently reproduced.
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3D workDeepSeek V4 Pro · A dimly lit SDF scene
A low-effort run. The original preview is dark and the bird and bicycle are difficult to distinguish; the actual image is preserved as a comparison of different implementations of the same task. The source marks this run unverified; it has not been independently reproduced.
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Static SVGQwen3.6-27B-Fable-Fusion GGUF
Single agent vs team vs team with web access, starting at 27,000 tokens across the three settings.
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Videounspecified on BBC Micro
Drawing a pelican riding a bicycle on a 1981 BBC Micro.
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Text / referenceClaude Opus 5 + OpenSCAD
Designed for 3D printing; the author said, “I did it wrong.”
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Text / referenceOpenEnv RL env
Turning the unscored pelican prompt into a trainable reinforcement-learning environment.
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2026-06
7 records
Animation
Static SVG
Text / referencemulti aiznb.com
A collection of pelicans delivering food on Meituan bicycles.
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Static SVG
Animation
Static SVGdoubao-seed-pro-2.1 / gpt-5.5 / Opus-4.8
A three-model comparison; the author considered Doubao the most faithful result.
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Static SVG2026-05
3 records
Static SVGIBM Granite 4.1 3B × 21 quants
Twenty-one quantized variants of the same small model; the results were less interesting than expected.
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Static SVG
Animation2026-04
8 records
Static SVGQwen3.6-35B-A3B (Q4 laptop) vs Claude Opus 4.7
A locally quantized open model drew a better pelican than Opus at the time. Simon used it to illustrate that pelican quality no longer reliably tracked overall capability. A flamingo-on-a-unicycle variant also appeared.
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Static SVGQwen3.6 vs Opus 4.7 flamingo
A flamingo riding a unicycle as an anti-cheating comparison prompt.
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Static SVG
Text / referencestacked tests
Combining a horse riding a horse, a pelican riding a bicycle, and “Why are you like this.”
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3D work
Text / referenceAI 3D print
A physical 3D print, with printing problems around the spokes.
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Text / referencetalkie vintage LM
A model trained on pre-1931 texts could not draw the image and instead wrote in the style of the period.
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Static SVGQwen3.6 distill Claude vs base
A teacher-distillation comparison: base vs Opus 4.7 distilled.
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2026-03
4 records
AnimationGPT-5.4 + After Effects
Animation created directly in After Effects; 330,000 views.
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Static SVGGPT-5.4 all efforts via Codex
A grid of all effort levels; xhigh put a fish in the pelican's mouth.
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Text / reference
Static SVG2026-02
10 records
Static SVG
Static SVGGemini 3 Deep Think
The author wrote, “Genuinely very impressed”; 380,000 views.
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Static SVGGemini 3 Deep Think enhanced
The enhanced California brown pelican prompt was also tested.
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Static SVGText / referenceunspecified
The author argued that the prompt remained unsaturated, with a much higher ceiling.
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Static SVGGemini 3.1 Pro
A good image, but it took over five minutes amid launch-day capacity issues.
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AnimationGemini 3.1 + After Effects
Bringing the prompt into After Effects; 180,000 views.
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AnimationQuiver + Cursor + Remotion
a16z: an all-SVG animation pipeline inspired by the prompt.
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Static SVG
Text / referenceGemini 3 Deep Think
A reference to Simon's February 12, 2026 Deep Think article.
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2026-01
4 records
Game / interactivehuman+AI product
Pelican Pedal Run, a complete game with 12 city and island levels, chain-driven cycling and fish collection, rather than a small test scene.
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Static SVG
Static SVG
Static SVG2025-12
2 records
2025-11
12 records
Text / referencePOV-Ray variant by BeetleB
“Write a POV-Ray file.” A related prompt. https://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2025/Oct/pelican-on-a-bike-raytracer-edition/
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Text / reference
Static SVG
Static SVGGemini 3 family
The prompt gained species-level detail, alongside the article “What happens if AI labs train for pelicans riding bicycles?”
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Static SVGText / referenceGemini 3 + enhanced prompt
An early systematic use of the enhanced prompt specifying a California brown pelican in breeding plumage.
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Static SVGGemini 3 / GPT-5.1 / Sonnet 4.5
Three providers compared with an enhanced prompt.
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Static SVGOpus 4.5 / Sonnet 4.5 / Haiku 4.5
Three tiers from the same model family.
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Static SVGGemini 3 Pro / Heavy / Opus 4.5
Single model vs multi-agent Heavy vs Opus.
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AnimationClaude Opus 4.5
An enhanced animation prompt with a surreal route, wings and shadows.
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Static SVG
Static SVG2025-10
4 records
Text / reference
Static SVGGemini 3.0 Pro Arena lithimflow
From the period when the model used an anonymous Arena name.
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Static SVGGemini 3 checkpoints
The author considered the original prompt nearly saturated and began “SVG maxing.”
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Static SVGminimax-m2-preview
A MiniMax test around the first anniversary of the prompt.
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2025-09
3 records
Static SVG
VideoClaude + ffmpeg geq
A five-second animation made with FFmpeg geq, with spinning wheels and flapping wings.
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Static SVG2025-08
4 records
Text / reference
Static SVG
Static SVGDeepSeek-V3.1 instruct vs reasoner
The instruct model produced a pastoral style; the reasoner produced a cartoon.
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Static SVG2025-07
4 records
AnimationGPT-5 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro
An English-language animation comparison from summer 2025; 110,000 views.
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Static SVG
Text / reference
Static SVGQwen3-Coder-Flash MLX
A local 6-bit model produced both a pelican and Space Invaders.
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2025-06
5 records
Static SVG34 pelicans; Gemini 2.5 Pro preview won
GPT-4.1 mini judged 560 matches at a reported cost of about $0.18.
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Static SVG
Animation
Static SVGMistral Small 3.2 15GB
A decent local result from a small quantized model.
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Video2025-05
4 records
Static SVGGemini 2.5 Pro
One of the strongest results at the time, although the model described the bird as a duck.
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Video
VideoGoogle I/O keynote
A pelican riding a bicycle appeared in the Google I/O keynote.
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Video2025-04
5 records
2025-03
6 records
Static SVGmulti + Grok 3 mashup
SVGs from several models were passed to Grok 3 to synthesize a hybrid creature.
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Static SVG
Static SVG
Static SVG
Static SVG
VideoGemini 2.5 + p5.js
Google Creative Lab used p5 rather than pure SVG; 140,000 views.
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2025-02
4 records
2025-01
4 records
Static SVGDeepSeek R1
Called “the pelican that crashed the stock market.” The bicycle is recognizable and the bird roughly resembles a pelican, but it is not really riding yet.
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Static SVG
3D workdeepseek-r1:32b
An early Three.js example with orbit controls, produced on the third attempt.
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Static SVGunspecified agent
The author wrote, “It's not amazing.” An early example of failure.
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2024-12
6 records
Static SVGgemini-exp-1206
An early result the author first described as “spectacular.”
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Text / reference
VideoSora
An initial Sora attempt along a coastal route; the rider reverses direction midway.
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Static SVG
VideoVeo 2
A text-to-video variant: coastal cycling, with visible pedaling in two clips.
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Static SVGQwQ
A long Chinese reasoning trace about SVG. Gist: simonw/d8a50200edd5d463b7ce0791c2242c87
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2024-11
3 records
Static SVG
Static SVGgemini-exp-1121
An early experimental model; it later described its own image as an insect.
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Static SVGQwQ via Ollama 20GB
An early locally generated pelican from an open reasoning model.
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2024-10
4 records
Static SVGStatic SVG16 models (Claude 3.5 / GPT-4o / Gemini 1.5 / Llama 3.1 ...)
The original experiment. The author liked pelicans, and very few ready-made pelican SVGs were available online at the time.
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Static SVGGemini 1.5 Flash 001/002
On the original experiment's first day: 001 gave the pelican a gun; 002 gave it a barbell.
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Static SVGClaude 3.5 Sonnet new vs previous
The original post, comparing two Claude 3.5 outputs; 680,000 views.
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1988-06
1 records
Videopractical+animation
Who Framed Roger Rabbit already featured a pelican riding a real bicycle. Water-filled wheels and counterweights helped balance it.
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