Meta is working on new image and video models
What's the story
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is working on new artificial intelligence (AI) models. The development is being carried out at its superintelligence lab led by Alexandr Wang, co-founder of Scale AI. The tech giant is said to be developing an image and video model codenamed "Mango" and a text-based model internally known as "Avocado," according to The Wall Street Journal.
Launch timeline
AI models set for early 2026 launch
Meta plans to launch these new AI models in the first half of 2026. This was revealed during an internal Q&A session at Meta, where Wang and Chief Product Officer Chris Cox discussed their roadmap. The company hopes to improve the text-based model's coding capabilities and explore new world models that understand visual information and can reason, plan, and act without needing to be trained on every possibility.
Internal shifts
AI division faces challenges and changes
Despite the ambitious plans, Meta's AI division has faced some challenges this year. The company has gone through major restructurings, including leadership changes and hiring researchers from other top companies. However, many of these researchers who joined the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) have already left. Yann LeCun, Meta's Chief AI Scientist, also announced his departure to start his own venture.
Product reliance
Meta's AI assistant relies on existing social networks
Despite the internal changes and departures, Meta's AI assistant continues to thrive. The product's usage is largely driven by the company's existing social networks with billions of users. This is because Meta has integrated the assistant into the search bar of its apps. However, this also means that the first projects and models coming out of MSL will be under a lot of pressure to deliver results.