Meta’s Next‑Generation AI “Avocado” May Be Delayed as It Fails to Keep Up with Competitors – CNET Japan
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| Source: Mastodon | Original article
Meta has postponed the launch of its next‑generation foundational model, code‑named “Avocado,” pushing the rollout from the planned March 2026 window to at least May 2026. Internal benchmark tests disclosed that Avocado fell short of the performance levels set by rival systems from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, prompting the company to delay the release while engineers close the gap.
The setback matters because Avocado was slated to be Meta’s flagship AI offering, intended to power everything from the revamped Llama‑3 series to new agentic‑AI services across its social platforms. A model that lags behind competitors could weaken Meta’s bargaining position in the rapidly consolidating AI ecosystem, where Google’s Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS and Anthropic’s Claude 4.7 have already demonstrated strong multimodal capabilities and tighter integration with developer tools. Meta’s delay also signals a broader industry trend: firms are reluctant to ship models that cannot meet the high bar set by the “big three,” lest they risk losing developer trust and market share.
Looking ahead, Meta is reportedly exploring a temporary licensing deal with Google to run Gemini‑based inference in its products while Avocado is refined. Observers will watch for any public performance data Meta releases, especially comparative scores on standard benchmarks such as MMLU, BIG-bench and multimodal reasoning tests. The timeline for a revised launch, the scope of any licensing arrangement, and how Meta positions Avocado against upcoming releases from OpenAI’s GPT‑4.5 and Anthropic’s Claude 5 will shape the competitive dynamics for the rest of the year. If Meta can close the performance gap, Avocado could still become a cornerstone of its AI strategy; if not, the company may need to rethink its roadmap entirely.
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