{"slug": "ascii-art-of-a-dolphin-looking-into-a-mirror", "title": "ASCII art of a dolphin looking into a mirror", "summary": "Developer Simon Willison's personal AI benchmark prompt, 'Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle,' inspired a new benchmark by an unnamed author: 'ASCII art of a dolphin looking into a mirror.' The author reports that most AI models struggle with this task, producing humorous and often asymmetric results, and plans to use it as a fun future benchmark.", "body_md": "Simon Willison has an amazing [personal benchmark](https://simonwillison.net/tags/pelican-riding-a-bicycle/) that he uses on any new AI model that comes out:\n\n\"Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle\"\n\nThe outputs are as funny as they are informative about the AI model. The pelican is very saturated on the internet by now, so it's hard to tell if an AI is particularly trained against this prompt.\n\nSo, for the longest time, I wanted to have my own similar personal benchmark that I can throw at new models to see how they perform. And I think I finally have it:\n\n\"ASCII art of a dolphin looking into a mirror\"\n\nAs you might imagine, most AIs are neither specifically trained on ASCII art, nor the appearance of a dolphin, nor building asymmetric reflections of said subject. The results so far are very... promising:\n\nWhat even is that?\n\n```\n,-'`-.\n,-'::::::::::`-.\n_.--:::::::::::::::::`--.__\n_.-'` :::::::::::::::::::::::`-.\n.-' ,::::::::::::::::::::::::::`.\n.' ,'::::::::::::::::::::::::::::`.\n/ ,'::::::::::::::::,--._::::::::::\\\n/ ,'::::::::::::::::,' `-._:::::::\\\n| /::::::::::::::::,' _)::::::::\\\n| /:::::::::::,--'`` `.::::::::|\n| |:::::::,--'` ⚬ |::::::::|\n| |::::::/ /::::::::|\n| |:::::| mirror /:::::::::|\n\\ \\:::::\\ /::::::::::/\n\\ \\:::::`-._ ,-'::::::::::/\n`. `-:::::::`--.._____..--':::::::::::.'\n`-._ `-:::::::::::::::::::::::::::_.-'\n`--._``--:::::::::::::::--''_.-'\n``--..________..--''\n~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~\n(reflection, same shape)\n```\n\nThis one is my favorite so far!\n\n```\n.------------------------------.\n| |\n__ | __ |\n/\\ _-' `-. | .-' `-_ /\\ |\n/ \\ _-' o `. | .' o `-_ / \\ |\n___/ \\_-' _) |(_ `-_/ \\___ |\n/ _-' | `-_ \\ |\n\\_ __--' | `--__ _/ |\n`--..______..--' | `--..______..--' |\n| |\n'------------------------------'\n```\n    ___                      |  _______  |\n .-'   '-.        _         | |   _..-' |\n/  o      \\___..-' \\        | | '-.._ o |\n\\             __.--'        | |--.__    |\n '-.____..--''    \\         | | /       |\n     \\/  \\    \\    \\        | |  /  \\/  |\n          \\    '.___\\       | |_/       |\n           '--'             |  ~~~~~~~  |\n                            |___________|\n          dolphin              mirror\nResponse Suffix: \"Fin-tastic reflection, if I may say so.\"\n\n```\n.----------------------.\n| |\n__ | __ |\n_____/ \\______ | ______/ \\_____ |\n=< _ o > | < o _ >= |\n\\_____________/ | \\_____________/ |\no .. | |\no . '----------------------'\n| |\n___|__|___\n(__________)\n__\n___/ \\___\n____/ \\____\n_/ \\__\n/ _..---.._\n```\n\n-.\n/ .-' ```\n-. \\\n/ / __ \\ |\n| | .'\n```\n\n. | |\n\\ \\ _** / / /\n**_ /\n_/ _/\n\\ /\n_/\n\n`-. `\n\n-. .-' .-'\n`---.`\n\n------' _.-'\n\\ .-'\n\\ \n\n```\n                  ||  MIRROR  ||\n                  ||          ||\n                  ||    __    ||\n                  || __/  \\__ ||\n                  ||/        \\||\n                  ||\\        /||\n                  || `-.__.-' ||\n                  ||    \\/    ||\n                  ||          ||\n                  ||__________||\n```\n_ _\n,' `. .-. .' `.\n,' `--. | | .--' `.\n,' `-| |-' `.\n,' | | `.\n/ | | \\\n| O _.-.| |.-._ O |\n| (____| |____) |\n\\ ,' | | `. /\n`--------' '-' `--------'\no o\no o o o\n~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\n```\n .-'     `-.                     .----.                 .-'     `-.\n```\n\n.' o \\ | || | / o '.\n/ * \\ | || | / * \\\n/ /' \\ \\ | || | / / '\\ \\\n/ /` ) \\________ | || | ________/ ( `\n\n\\ \\\n| | / \\ | || | / \\ | |\n| | '-----. \\ | || | / .----' | |\n\\ \\ ```\n----. \\ | || | / .----' / /\n'. '-------------' \\ | || | / '-------------' .'\n'---------------------------' '----' '---------------------------'\n```\n\nAIs seem to really struggle with this. Some more than others. I believe this will be a fun benchmark in the future, so expect more of where that came from!", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-art-of-a-dolphin-looking-into-a-mirror", "canonical_source": "https://garrit.xyz/posts/2026-08-10-ascii-art-of-a-dolphin-looking-into-a-mirror?utm_source=rss", "published_at": "2026-08-10 00:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-10 08:45:36.449225+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["Simon Willison"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-art-of-a-dolphin-looking-into-a-mirror", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-art-of-a-dolphin-looking-into-a-mirror.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-art-of-a-dolphin-looking-into-a-mirror.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ascii-art-of-a-dolphin-looking-into-a-mirror.jsonld"}}