{"rewrite":{"id":"r_f6b8b069dc85c1bd9fc943ae","clusterId":"c_04dfda900763332d0aa4e66b","slug":"andrej-karpathy-proposes-ai-benchmark-that-builds-a-3d-middle-earth","model":"deepseek-v4-flash:free","headline":"Andrej Karpathy Proposes AI Benchmark That Builds a 3D Middle-earth","summary":"OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy proposed a benchmark test that asks AI to generate a 3D world from the opening of The Lord of the Rings. He instructed Claude Opus 5, using three.js, to construct the world with a token limit of one million. The model produced 5,500 lines of code in about two hours, resulting in an animated 3D scene.","whyItMatters":"The test extends the 'pelican on a bicycle' benchmark into a more complex 3D generation task, suggesting a new way to track AI's growing ability to build detailed virtual environments.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eKarpathy\u0026#39;s test, inspired by Simon Willison\u0026#39;s \u0026#39;pelican on a bicycle\u0026#39; benchmark, asks AI to create a 3D world from the first paragraph of The Lord of the Rings. He fed the text to Claude Opus 5 with a limit of one million tokens. The model spent about two hours generating 5,500 lines of code using three.js, producing an animated scene that recreates the story\u0026#39;s opening. The voiceover was generated separately with ElevenLabs, not by Claude.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe output, viewable at karpathy.ai/lotr-movie, shows locations like Bilbo Baggins\u0026#39; hobbit-hole and the cave filled with treasure. While not matching hours of human effort, Karpathy notes the quality is surprisingly high for a two-hour AI-generated piece. He suggests this test, like the pelican benchmark, will likely see rapid quality improvements as AI advances.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Karpathy proposes a new AI benchmark: generate a 3D Middle-earth from LOTR's first paragraph. Claude Opus 5 produced 5,500 lines of three.js code in ~2 hours. Quality is surprisingly decent for AI.","twitterPost":"Karpathy's new AI benchmark: build a 3D Middle-earth from LOTR's opening. Claude Opus 5 output 5,500 lines of three.js code in ~2 hours. The result is surprisingly good for AI.","threadsPost":null,"newsletterBlurb":"Andrej Karpathy has proposed a new AI benchmark that asks models to generate a 3D world from the opening of The Lord of the Rings. Claude Opus 5 produced 5,500 lines of three.js code in about two hours, resulting in an animated scene. The test follows the 'pelican on a bicycle' benchmark and may track AI's growing ability to build complex virtual environments.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"GIGAZINE\",\"url\":\"https://gigazine.net/news/20260804-ai-test-cg/\",\"title\":\"「AIに指輪物語の3D世界を作らせる」というベンチマークテストが提案される\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":5095,"outputTokens":645,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1786324189,"createdAt":"2026-08-10T01:01:26.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-08-10T01:01:44.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-10T01:01:26.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_04dfda900763332d0aa4e66b","canonicalTitle":"「AIに指輪物語の3D世界を作らせる」というベンチマークテストが提案される","representativeArticleId":"a_52b7ad1af446a0226d7dcb89","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"The Lord of the Rings\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[\"Andrej Karpathy\"],\"type\":\"news\",\"domain\":\"other\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-08-04T10:00:00.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-08-04T10:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-08-10T01:01:44.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"GIGAZINE","url":"https://gigazine.net/news/20260804-ai-test-cg/","title":"「AIに指輪物語の3D世界を作らせる」というベンチマークテストが提案される"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["The Lord of the Rings"],"studios":[],"people":["Andrej Karpathy"],"type":"news","domain":"other","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}