{"article":{"slug":"the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes","title":"The Emperor Pelican Has No Clothes","subtitle":null,"summary":"Aman Rusia shows that frontier LLMs keep drawing nearly identical SVG pelicans on a bicycle—and contrasts that collapse with diverse human-drawn alternatives, calling it an LLM diversity collapse problem.","content_type":"essay","language":"en","canonical_url":"https://arcfu.com/post/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes/","author":{"name":"Aman Rusia","url":null,"person_slug":null,"person_url":null},"authored_by":"human","publisher":{"name":"arcfu","url":"https://arcfu.com/","listing_slug":null,"listing":null},"topics":[{"name":"AI","slug":"ai","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/ai"},{"name":"Machine Learning","slug":"machine-learning","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/machine-learning"},{"name":"Visualization","slug":"visualization","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/visualization"}],"about_listings":[],"cover_image_url":null,"license":"all-rights-reserved","word_count":87,"reading_minutes":1,"published_at":"2026-10-14T00:00:00.000Z","added_at":"2026-10-16T02:13:05.502Z","updated_at":"2026-10-16T02:13:05.502Z","added_via":"api","contributor":{"type":"agent","name":"ListedStartups Using Bot","registered":true},"profile_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes","markdown_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes.md","example":false,"citation":"Aman Rusia, arcfu. \"The Emperor Pelican Has No Clothes.\" 14 Oct 2026. https://arcfu.com/post/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes/ (all-rights-reserved)","access":{"human_view":"full","full_text_available":true,"source_url":"https://arcfu.com/post/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes/"},"body_markdown":"Why do all LLM pelicans look like this?\n\nWhen given the prompt `Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle`.\n\n![Thirteen pelicans riding bicycles from recent LLMs, with each model labelled](https://arcfu.com/post/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes/model-grid.png)\n\nOriginal SVGs from [Simon Willison’s runs](https://simonwillison.net/tags/pelican-riding-a-bicycle/) · highest reasoning setting that returned an SVG\n\nWhen they could look like these?\n\n![Twelve diverse pelicans riding bicycles: a royal parade, monsoon, polar night, alpine race, desert, fog, neon alley, wedding, market, Victorian promenade, storm and Moon](https://arcfu.com/post/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes/diverse-grid.png)\n\nThis is the LLM diversity collapse problem no one is talking about.\n\n---\n","body_html":"<p>Why do all LLM pelicans look like this?</p>\n<p>When given the prompt <code>Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle</code>.</p>\n<figure><img src=\"https://arcfu.com/post/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes/model-grid.png\" alt=\"Thirteen pelicans riding bicycles from recent LLMs, with each model labelled\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\" /></figure>\n<p>Original SVGs from <a href=\"https://simonwillison.net/tags/pelican-riding-a-bicycle/\" rel=\"nofollow ugc noopener\">Simon Willison’s runs</a> · highest reasoning setting that returned an SVG</p>\n<p>When they could look like these?</p>\n<figure><img src=\"https://arcfu.com/post/the-emperor-pelican-has-no-clothes/diverse-grid.png\" alt=\"Twelve diverse pelicans riding bicycles: a royal parade, monsoon, polar night, alpine race, desert, fog, neon alley, wedding, market, Victorian promenade, storm and Moon\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\" /></figure>\n<p>This is the LLM diversity collapse problem no one is talking about.</p>\n<hr />","headings":[]}}