alt Hacker NewsPelican for Fable 5 on default settings is a clear improvement on Opus 4.8
Fable 5 default: https://gist.github.com/simonw/036bee5a703e7ec84e34efa974438...
Opus 4.8 (the "max" one is closest to Fable): https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/28/claude-opus-4-8/#and-s...
Now here are the Fable pelicans for all five of the thinking effort levels - low, medium, high, xhigh, max: https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer#url=ht...
Low used 25 input, 1,929 output - 9.67 cents: https://www.llm-prices.com/#it=25&ot=1929&sel=claude-fable-5
Max used 25 input, 14,430 output - 72.175 cents! https://www.llm-prices.com/#it=25&ot=14430&sel=claude-fable-...
Replies
I'm beginning to wonder how much of a useful metric the pelican is because surely the frontier labs must be training their models on pelican-artistry because of how well known your test is now?
This is the reply I look for in all the new model announcements. Its fun to tell people that I judge models based on pelicans.
It also does A LOT better, for my hamster test: https://aibenchy.com/showcase/?q=claude#showcase=6efb87c28e3...
I find it quite interesting that while the picture looks better the more advanced the model is, but apparently none so far "understands" that the pelicans legs are on both sides of the bike / top bar.
It's interesting that they still get the head tube / handle bar part wrong.
The Max version gets more details right. The bike frame looks good, the chain, the wings are appropriately styled instead of “arms”, and the knee is bent, etc. Obviously we’re hitting marginal returns now, but I see differences.
How much money do you think they spent fine-tuning on pelican SVG generation?
It's interesting that Gemini 3(.1?) Deep Think is still the best at this task and it's still not really generally available. Maybe Fable could match it at higher effort levels? https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/12/gemini-3-deep-think/
Can you please compare the code generated by other similar quality pelicans by other models. Code in your first link (Fable 5 Default) looks minimal yet very good.
Looks like Fable constructed the "max" "looking" pelican of the previous model for the "xhigh" output token count of the previous model.
Is it possible to use the credits from subscription (https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15036540-use-the-clau...) for fable?
I'm pretty sure they're optimizing the models around these sorts of tests.
Anyone care about these pelicans that always come up anymore?
Clearly at this point they are part of the training data.
They even all look sort of ish the same. Daytime, colors,...
I could be tripping but I’m sure that is very similar to the Deepseek one from not long ago. Clearly I am too lazy to go and find it for verification.
Yay, max level actually put one of the legs behind the frame!
Personally feel like it could be more ambitious with what it creates.
Where is the clear improvement on Fable 5? The tail is misplaced.
Fable 5 xhigh actually looks the best to me.
Do we need a pelican every single time a model is released? Beating a very dead horse.
Fun at first, seems disingenuous now. A site funnel
The way they talked it up, having both legs on one side of the bike is like walking to the car wash
that's a great looking pelican
need more Alex Moulton style bikes
dude, the max version looks like it's finally there. handle bar holding with wings, the left leg is behind the frame while the right is in front of it (correctly).
well done anthropic.
mediocre pelican. very disappointing
How many barrels of oil are burned per pelican at Fable levels?
The pelican has looked very same-y across all frontier models, same color bike, same camera angle, etc. I suspect this challenge is already too embedded in the training data to be a good signal when it succeeds, and maybe even when it fails in pathological ways mirroring existing AI pelicans on the internet.