Pelican from a few days ago: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/6/hy3/ - I was using the free tier on OpenRouter, which expires on July 21st.
I tried the preview model 41 days ago and got a pelican with a "change pelican color" button: https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/hy3-preview-pel...
I quite enjoy that the "animate wheels" button animates the sun instead.
Recently tried the pelican test on GPT-OSS which was probably one of the best local models of 2025. So cool to see how models have improved in the SVG pelican!
I'm skeptical, as tests go, I think that's burned out now. They could easily be training specifically to get a better pelican...
Doesn't have to be specific training, just has to consume simonw's blog. It's got lots of SVG pelicans, with helpful commentary on how good they are. I think there might be some kind of hill climbing going on here.
If they were training specifically for it the result would be much better
I have been overly critical and arguing in bad faith about your writing in the past. As well as negative towards you, which in turn was breeding a bad environment. While I dont really enjoy LLMs, you did help me realize my unreasonable feelings as well as realize the occupation (and the joys I got from it) is essentially dead from it’s previous iteration and that I should let go and just join in the “I’m doing it for the money and attention” crowd. I will still just hand code my own projects and not use LLMs when I can. I think it’s cool you started the pelican meme however useful it really is even if only aesthetically.
Curious why TFA calls out "Tencent in China".
Is there a Tencent AI lab elsewhere (MiniMax have some association with Tencent, for example)?I think it's just their version of "Designed by Apple in California"
Tencent seems to have subsidiaries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent#Subsidiaries
Also they have large European / South African shareholders.
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Some things are better left unsaid.
Why?
“Because it looks foolish!”
This account is anonymous. Who gives a fuck? I will write to whomever I want.
I will vouch for Simon. I do not know him personally. To me his posts are honest and inspirational.
> I have been overly critical and arguing in bad faith about your writing in the past
I think you are just critical without a stated valid reason. Arguing in bad faith seems to be a thing if HN history is the judge.
And this is coming from a critical thinker, who is a bit tired of people firing off "human slop" comments. The Internet is full of a lot of people, but even when a few are bad apples, it spoils the lot. Maybe that is the intent. Maybe you are just grumpy for your life's situation.
It is 100% possible to build software entirely with AI. If you don't do that, that's great! I still code by hand from time to time, and I'm reading a lot of Rust nowadays, and learning the ropes. I come from a strong Python and Javascript background, plus networking and operations, which I'm a whiz at. I don't do it anymore, but I know how to inform it is done properly.
With this power, I can build things nobody wants to build, but me. Doesn't mean one has to put it into production, or it has to pass some security test, although with me driving it probably will. It only need be what is important to the end user, the prompter, to matter.
I think Simon helps people with this mindset be better at what they love to do. And for that, we should all be grateful.
That’s great for you and Simon but I personally don’t think there will be enough people in the future to use or appreciate these things that can be built and eventually no who will care to build them, and while this “discovery of LLMs phase” might be fun it diminishes the value I used to get from the job, which was writing code, problem solving, discussing and learning with people (having real people and mentors to work with and look up to), and just playing with computers.
There will be a few, sure but not enough. And even if there are enough to give me the things I miss, who is the expert? All of them with the exact same capability to, for example, generate some form of pelican drawing. C’est la vie, but it doesn’t mean it’s not depressing.
It has nothing to do with any attachment to a project or releasing something to everyone. It is a completely personal view about how the community and reward I got from it is dying. If you remove a technical abstraction layer you remove the technical abstractors.
There is a wide gulf of people who use LLMs and those who don’t and I didn’t fully realize this until the last few months. But it really is just a few industries making all the noise.
Tony the Tiger on a bicycle selling addictive items to children is not new.