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# Can Frontier Models See Past a Decoy? Elorian Tests Visual Reasoning

**[Latent Space](https://daily.dev/sources/latentspace)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A new benchmark called DecoyCount tests whether AI models truly count objects or rely on visual shortcuts. Frontier models all scored below 50% accuracy, with GPT-6 Astra highest at 43.17%, followed by Gemini-3.8-flash at 32.71%, Qwen3.8-max at 28.31%, and Claude-Fable-5.1 at 25.22%. Elorian's new visual reasoning model, Glimpse, scored 50.48% in an internal test, the only model to clear 50%, though its result came from a single run rather than the three-run average used for the other models. Elorian, which raised $55 million in seed funding, argues visual reasoning requiring models to generate and edit images as part of their reasoning trace is a foundational step toward AGI.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://latent.space/p/elorian>

## Questions this post answers

### What score did GPT-6 Astra get on the DecoyCount visual counting benchmark?

GPT-6 Astra scored 43.17% on DecoyCount, the highest among frontier models tested, all of which fell below 50% accuracy. Gemini-3.8-flash scored 32.71%, Qwen3.8-max scored 28.31%, and Claude-Fable-5.1 scored 25.22%. These results were averaged across three runs each under their reported settings, according to the accompanying paper.

_Comparing model benchmarks before picking one? Track vision model evaluations like these on daily.dev._

### What is the DecoyCount benchmark and why was it created?

DecoyCount is a benchmark co-released by Elorian and Mercor that tests whether language models genuinely count objects or rely on visual shortcuts and substitution heuristics, such as miscounting a mirror reflection as a separate object. It contains 1,660 items and evaluates vision and reasoning together, since most benchmarks only check the final number and can't tell whether an error is a vision problem or a reasoning problem.

_Evaluating whether a model actually reasons rather than guesses? Follow benchmark breakdowns like this on daily.dev._

### How did Elorian's Glimpse model score on the DecoyCount benchmark compared to frontier models?

Glimpse scored 50.48% on the 1,660 DecoyCount items, making it the only model to clear 50%, about 7 points ahead of GPT-6 Astra's 43.17%. However, Glimpse's score came from a single run without an agent or tool harness, while the six frontier models were each averaged across three runs under their reported settings, a methodological difference worth noting.

_Weighing a new visual reasoning model against established frontier models? Catch comparisons like this on daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#deep-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/deep-learning), [#world-models](https://daily.dev/tags/world-models)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/can-frontier-models-see-past-a-decoy-elorian-tests-visual-reasoning-zv5y7m5dn)

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