Meta shifts away from fruit-themed naming convention for AI models

Meta has made an internal decision to cease naming its artificial intelligence models after fruits, a development driven by branding considerations as the fruit codenames no longer align with the company's advanced AI goals. The company previously used fruit names, such as 'Avocado' and 'Mango' for earlier language and image models, and its latest frontier model, Wonder Full, was internally known as 'Watermelon'. Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and AI chief, Alexandr Wang, humorously noted on the Cheeky Pint podcast last month that they had exhausted their supply of fruit names. Wang specifically mentioned the durian as the largest fruit, suggesting a reason to avoid it. This trend is not unique to Meta. In 2025, OpenAI reportedly used the internal codename 'Garlic' for one model, and Google released its 'Nano Banana' image generator that same year. More contemporary AI development is seeing a shift toward more grandiose nomenclature, exemplified by Anthropic's Mythos and OpenAI's Astra.