Testing OpenAI o1 Pro's Celebrity Recognition

APRIL 06, 2025

I've always been fascinated by those giant group photos of celebrities gathered for special occasions. The Paramount Studios anniversary photos are particularly iconic examples of Hollywood history captured in a single frame - dozens of famous faces spanning generations of film and television, all assembled on the famous Paramount lot.

With OpenAI's new o1 Pro model boasting advanced image recognition capabilities, I decided to put it to the test with three classic Paramount anniversary photos from different eras to see how well it could identify the celebrities.

I uploaded photos from Paramount's 75th, 85th, and 100th anniversary celebrations - each featuring a stunning array of stars from their respective eras. The results were interesting: only the 35-year-old photo (from the 75th anniversary in 1987) was successfully processed with a comprehensive list of celebrities identified.

OpenAI o1 Pro test with Paramount anniversary photos

Here's a look at the three iconic photos I tested:

Paramount 75th Anniversary (1987)

Paramount Studios 75th Anniversary Photo (1987)

This is the photo where o1 Pro successfully identified celebrities. The 1987 gathering featured an incredible assembly of talent from that era. Here's who was in the photo, row by row with Wikipedia links:

Front Row (Left to Right)

Second Row (Left to Right)

Third Row (Left to Right)

Fourth Row (Left to Right)

Fifth Row (Left to Right)

Back Row (Left to Right)

While the OpenAI o1 Pro model identified some of these celebrities, it missed a significant number of them, including legendary figures like Elizabeth Taylor, James Stewart (Jimmy Stewart), Gregory Peck, and Harrison Ford.

Paramount 85th Anniversary (1997)

Paramount Studios 85th Anniversary Photo (1997)

o1 Pro struggled with this photo from 1997. The model couldn't provide a comprehensive list of celebrities for this image, despite it containing many recognizable faces from the 90s era.

Paramount Studios 85th Anniversary Photo with annotations (1997)

Here's the complete list of celebrities in the 85th Anniversary photo with Wikipedia links:

Paramount 100th Anniversary (2012)

Paramount Studios 100th Anniversary Photo (2012)

Similarly, the 100th anniversary photo from 2012 proved too challenging for the AI to provide a detailed breakdown of celebrities, despite featuring many current A-listers.

Paramount Studios 100th Anniversary Photo with annotations (2012)

Here's the list of celebrities in the 100th Anniversary photo with Wikipedia links:

I've always loved these kinds of massive celebrity group photos and find myself studying them, trying to identify every face. It's interesting to see where AI currently stands in this type of recognition task - clearly able to identify many celebrities in certain images but still not matching the human ability to recognize faces across different contexts, lighting conditions, and eras.

For now, these annotated versions help satisfy my curiosity about who's who in these historic Hollywood gatherings. Perhaps in another year, AI systems will be able to completely map out every face in complex group photos like these, but for now, it seems there's still value in human recognition and our collective knowledge of film history.