Are AI labs pelicanmaxxing?
Simon Willison's Weblog 2 months ago 54 ● 2 sources
Dylan Castillo conducted a systematic evaluation across 7 AI models using 48 prompts (8 animals × 6 vehicles tested 3 times each) to determine whether labs were deliberately optimizing for drawing pelicans on bicycles. The analysis found no significant evidence of "pelicanmaxxing": models showed no particular advantage at rendering pelicans, bicycles, or the combination, with GLM-5.2 showing only a marginal effect not reaching statistical significance. The finding suggests AI labs are not specifically tuning their models to excel at this particular meme benchmark.
