Daily Tech Headlines Meta's Foundational AI 'Avocado' Underperforms, Faces Delays Amid Internal Strife - DTH
Mar 13, 2026
Meta's new foundational AI reportedly lags behind rivals and its launch is being pushed back amid leadership turmoil. Apple cuts App Store commissions in China to address regulatory pressure. Adobe's CEO exits as investors fret about generative AI competition. Substack debuts a desktop recording tool to help creators produce multimedia and boost earnings.
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Avocado Underperforms And Faces Internal Turmoil
- Meta's foundational AI Avocado is lagging behind Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Reasoning Encoding, forcing a release delay from March to at least May.
- Internal debates over open-sourcing Avocado and leadership clashes occurred even as Meta began work on its successor, Watermelon.
Zuckerberg's AI Push Is Slowing Releases
- Mark Zuckerberg's heavy AI investments are lengthening Meta's timeline to catch up in foundational models.
- The company is balancing product speed with strategic choices like open-sourcing while concurrently developing a successor, Watermelon.
Apple Lowers App Store Fees In China
- Apple cut App Store commissions in mainland China: standard rate from 30% to 25% and smaller developers from 15% to 12%, effective March 15.
- The move is framed as preemptive against Chinese antitrust pressure and to settle disputes with Tencent and ByteDance.