Meta’s New AI Image Model Doing Badly in Testing, Report Says

Meta said in January that it plans to spend somewhere between $115 billion and $135 billion in the pursuit of AI superintelligence, but it’s hit a snag after its newest AI model is reportedly behind rivals.

The New York Times reports that Meta’s new AI image and video model, codenamed ‘Avocado’, has fallen short in tests when compared to models from rivals OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

The report comes from anonymous sources inside Meta who tell the newspaper that it’s failed to beat Gemini 3.0 during internal testing.

Avocado was slated to be released this month, but the disappointing results have forced Meta to delay the release of Avocado until at least July. Embarassingly, Meta is now considering licensing Google Gemini to power its AI products in the short term.

“As we’ve said publicly, our next model will be good but, more importantly, show the rapid trajectory we’re on, and then we’ll steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models,” Meta spokesman Dave Arnold tells The Times. “We’re excited for people to see what we’ve been cooking very soon.”

Meta has been ploughing resources into AI, investing $14.3 billion in startup Scale AI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that Meta’s new goal is to create AI “superintelligence,” where AI will be smarter than humans.

The Times reports that, as well as Avocado, Meta is also working on another fruit-themed model called Mango. Both are image and video generators.

Meta will likely want its AI models to help out with its booming smart glasses. But that’s also hit a snag: the company is now facing a class action lawsuit over the wearable technology, with plaintiffs alleging that the company misled consumers about how footage captured by the devices may be reviewed.

The legal action follows a report by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten that contractors tasked with labeling objects in video clips encountered private and sensitive scenes recorded by users. The workers based in Kenya said they had viewed intimate material, including bathroom visits, sexual encounters, and other personal moments.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.