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Meta Delays Rollout of New A.I. Model 'Avocado' After Performance Concerns
Meta Platforms has delayed the launch of its next foundational AI model, codenamed Avocado, from March to at least May 2026 due to underwhelming performance in internal benchmarks on reasoning, coding, and writing compared to rivals like Google's Gemini 3.0, OpenAI, and Anthropic. While Avocado surpasses Meta's prior model and Gemini 2.5, the setback has sparked internal talks about licensing Google's Gemini. This highlights the cutthroat race in frontier AI development.
Why it matters
A major lab's model delay signals intensifying competition and potential shifts in AI leadership, affecting tools from chatbots to code generators that power daily workflows.