September 26, 2026
Recursion spans nine genres: Claude Opus 5.5 creates an educational video
On Sep 26, Claude Opus 5.5 created a 177-second video about recursion. The video shifted through nine genres and explained recursion in programming.
Ethan Mollick
@emollick
Okay, this is amusing and exactly what I wanted, but now let's try making it genuinely educational. This is genuinely impressive. The model kept the multiple-genres constraint and explained recursion in its programming sense clearly, engagingly, and accessibly.
Ethan Mollick @emollick
How do you explain recursion? This one is pretty fun. I had Claude Opus 5.5 make: "A video explaining recursion, where every explanation about recursion has a radically different video style, make this self-referential & clever & fast moving." Nine genre shifts, one prompt...
· 8.9K views
Ethan Mollick initially wanted a fun video. Now Claude Opus 5.5 sustained nine genres and explained recursion clearly, engagingly, and accessibly, in Mollick's assessment.
The video runs for 177 seconds.
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