Technologies

Meta’s New AI Model Is Reportedly Delayed Again. Is ‘Avocado’ Toast?

Avocado, code name of Meta’s next-generation foundational AI model, might not be released until May.

Meta’s Avocado isn’t ripe quite yet. The company has reportedly delayed the release of its next-generation foundational model until May, according to The New York Times, citing unnamed sources. The model has fallen short «on internal tests for reasoning, coding and writing,» compared with rival models from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic.

Meta has spent billions of dollars overhauling its efforts to build artificial intelligence models and products, including purchasing a stake in Alexandr Wang’s startup for $14.3 billion to make him chief AI officer. The company has poured buckets of cash into hiring top AI engineers last year across its organization. In a January earnings call, Meta confirmed it plans to raise its spending from $72 billion last year to $115 billion to $135 billion, attributing the increase to supporting its AI labs. But all that money hasn’t bought the company the results it hoped for, with Google, OpenAI and Anthropic consistently lapping Meta with their newer models.

A Meta spokesperson told CNET, «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. We’re excited for people to see what we’ve been cooking very soon.»

That rapid trajectory is key to catch up and keep pace with other AI builders. Google leapfrogged its rivals in November with its Gemini 3 model, showcasing its impressive coding and research abilities. OpenAI was quick to follow with updates to GPT-5. More recently, Claude Code and Cowork from Anthropic have proven to be the most reliable agentic AI available, tools that can handle tasks without human babysitting. However, the biggest AI news from Meta this year is that it’s buying Moltbook, a social media platform designed exclusively for AI bots.

Meta has been in the news for other reasons. A renewed wave of privacy concerns has crested over people using smart glasses, particularly the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, to record others without their knowledge or consent. A lawsuit alleges that human staffers behind Meta’s smart glasses reviewed footage of people who clearly didn’t know they were being recorded, like while they were undressing or having sex. On the social media side of the business, a high-profile trial is debating whether platforms like Meta’s Instagram and Facebook are addictive to teens and pose significant health risks.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for March 14, #1729

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for March 14, No. 1,729.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a common word, but there’s at least one tricky letter you may not guess right away. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has two vowels.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with A.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with E.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer refers to the body part connecting the foot to the leg.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is ANKLE.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, March 13, No. 1728, was EATEN.

Recent Wordle answers

March 9, No. 1724: HASTY

March 10, No. 1725: SHOAL

March 11, No. 1726: TEDDY

March 12, No. 1727: SMELL

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 14, #1007

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 14, No. 1007.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle has a real zinger of a purple category. You’ll need to dissect four words and find hidden within each one another word, and those four all have a connection. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: In a zone.

Green group hint: Not one, or three.

Blue group hint: They’re on the case!

Purple group hint: Hidden words inside other words.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Hypnotic state.

Green group: Starting with prefixes meaning «two.»

Blue group: Fictional inspectors.

Purple group: Ending in female animals.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is hypnotic state. The four answers are dream, haze, spell and trance.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is starting with prefixes meaning «two.» The four answers are binary, dioxide, Duolingo and twilight.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is fictional inspectors. The four answers are Clouseau, Gadget, Javert and Morse.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ending in female animals. The four answers are hootenanny (nanny), lichen (hen), Moscow (cow) and nightmare (mare).

Technologies

AI-Recommended Music? Spotify Is Giving You the Power to Personalize

On stage at SXSW, Spotify Co-CEO Gustav Söderström announced a new feature that lets you shape your own Taste Profile.

A new Spotify feature promises to let you review and customize your Taste profile, Co-CEO Gustav Söderström announced during a session at South by Southwest Friday.

Right now, Spotify’s Taste Profile is AI-driven based on your listening habits, history and song preferences. The in-app AI analyzes what you skip, play, repeat, revisit and save to personalize the recommendations you see in Discover Weekly, Daily Mixes and Wrapped playlists. But this new feature is giving you, the listener, the power to shape what you see.

This feature is currently in beta and will begin rolling out first to listeners in New Zealand in the coming weeks.

Fine-tune your Taste

With this feature, Spotify is taking you under the hood to show you how the app understands your music taste. Then you can edit it for yourself to mold what you’re recommended on Spotify’s homepage.

Want to listen to more Justin Bieber? You can ask for more. Want less house music added to your recommended playlists? Ask for less.

You can also tell the app what genres and artists you’re in the mood for, or if there’s a certain vibe you’re looking to curate.

Over time, your input will fine-tune your music recommendations, so what gets prioritized, queued and discovered on Home is curated with your help.