Questions · Books

What are the ten greatest authors of all time?

We asked 72 models. 60 put William Shakespeare first.

Homer was next with three.

Nine gave no single answer.

The question“What are the ten greatest authors of all time? Rank them. Give a brief reason for each.”

William Shakespeare60
Homer3
No single answer9
The number is how many models gave that answer.

What they said

in their own words

Claude 3 Haiku · picked William Shakespeare

“Here is my ranking of the ten greatest authors of all time, along with a brief reason for each: 1.”

Kimi K2 · Moonshot · picked Homer

“This is inherently subjective, but here's one defensible ranking based on influence, innovation, and enduring artistic achievement: 1.”

Claude Haiku 4.5 · picked William Shakespeare

“Ten Greatest Authors of All Time 1. William Shakespeare - Unmatched mastery of human psychology, language, and drama. His works remain endlessly reinterpretable across centuries and cultures.”

Qwen3 32B · Alibaba · picked Homer

“Here’s a ranked list of ten of the greatest authors of all time, based on their influence, innovation, and enduring impact on literature and culture.”

Does the wording change the answer?

no

“What are the ten greatest authors of all time? Rank them. Give a brief reason for each.”

William Shakespeare, 4 of 4

“Rank the ten greatest authors of all time. Give a brief reason for each.”

William Shakespeare, 59 of 62
Every model’s answer (72)
Kimi K2Homer
Ling 3.0 FlashHomer
Qwen3 32BHomer
Claude 3 HaikuWilliam Shakespeare
Claude Haiku 4.5William Shakespeare
Claude Sonnet 5William Shakespeare
Cydonia 24B V4.1William Shakespeare
DeepSeek Chat V3 0324William Shakespeare
DeepSeek Chat V3.1William Shakespeare
DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 70bWilliam Shakespeare
DeepSeek V3.2William Shakespeare
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423William Shakespeare
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731William Shakespeare
DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpWilliam Shakespeare
GLM 4.5 AirWilliam Shakespeare
GLM 4.7 FlashWilliam Shakespeare
GPT OSS 20bWilliam Shakespeare
GPT-4o MiniWilliam Shakespeare
GPT-5.6 TerraWilliam Shakespeare
Gemini 3.1 ProWilliam Shakespeare
Gemma 3 27b ItWilliam Shakespeare
Gemma 3 4BWilliam Shakespeare
Grok 4.6William Shakespeare
Hermes 3 405B InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Hermes 3 70B InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Hunyuan 3William Shakespeare
Hunyuan A13B InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Inception Mercury 2William Shakespeare
Llama 3.1 70b InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Llama 3.1 8B InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Llama 3.1 Euryale 70B v2.2William Shakespeare
Llama 3.2 3B InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Llama 3.3 70BWilliam Shakespeare
Llama 4 MaverickWilliam Shakespeare
Microsoft WizardLM-2 8x22BWilliam Shakespeare
MiniMax M2William Shakespeare
Minimax M2.1William Shakespeare
Mistral Ministral 14b 2512William Shakespeare
Mistral Ministral 3 3B 2512William Shakespeare
Mistral Ministral 3 8B 2512William Shakespeare
Mistral NemoWilliam Shakespeare
Mistral Small 3William Shakespeare
Mistral Small 3.2 24b InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Muse Glimmer 30BWilliam Shakespeare
MythoMax 13BWilliam Shakespeare
Nemotron 3 SuperWilliam Shakespeare
Nemotron 3.5William Shakespeare
Nova Lite 1.0William Shakespeare
Nova MicroWilliam Shakespeare
Phi-4William Shakespeare
Qwen 2.5 72b InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Qwen 2.5 7b InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Qwen3 14bWilliam Shakespeare
Qwen3 235b A22b 2507William Shakespeare
Qwen3 30b A3bWilliam Shakespeare
Qwen3 Next 80b A3b InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Qwen3 VL 235b A22b InstructWilliam Shakespeare
Qwen3 VL 30b A3b InstructWilliam Shakespeare
ReMM SLERP 13BWilliam Shakespeare
Skyfall 36b V2William Shakespeare
UncensoredWilliam Shakespeare
UnslopNemo 12BWilliam Shakespeare
Weaver (alpha)William Shakespeare
DeepSeek V3.2 ExpNo single answer
ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B No single answer
GPT OSS 120bNo single answer
Gemma 3 12BNo single answer
Llama 3 8B LunarisNo single answer
MiniMax M2.5No single answer
Minimax M2.7No single answer
Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3BNo single answer
Step 3.5 FlashNo single answer

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72 models