Mark Zuckerberg Opens Up Meta's LLaMA 2 To Developers, Taking On ChatGPT And Google's Bard

On Tuesday, Meta Platforms Inc. META CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to make the company’s latest and most advanced AI technology available to developers and software enthusiasts around the world free of charge, a move that could potentially help Meta compete with rivals like Google GOOGL and ChatGPT, The New York Times reports.

What Happened: The decision to open-source Meta’s AI technology, known as LLaMA 2, follows a similar move made by the company in February. This new version of Meta’s AI was created with 40% more data than what the company released just a few months ago and is believed to be considerably more powerful. It provides a detailed roadmap that shows how developers can work with the vast amount of data it has collected.

Meta’s move to make the software open-source means that the computer code can be freely copied, modified, and reused. Developers can build their own businesses using Meta’s underlying AI to power them — all for free.

This strategy is not new, as companies often open-source technologies in an effort to catch up with rivals.

Meta and Microsoft have partnered to make LLaMA 2 open-source, allowing it to operate on Microsoft’s MSFT Azure cloud services. Additionally, LLaMA 2 will be accessible through various providers, including Amazon Web Services and HuggingFace.

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Why It Matters: This move could trigger a frenzy among AI developers seeking alternatives to proprietary software sold by rivals like Google. Meta’s decision to open-source its AI software could have significant implications for broader adoption by other AI developers and businesses.

However, there are concerns that someone could deploy Meta’s AI without the safeguards that tech giants like Google and Microsoft often use to suppress toxic content. Newly created open-source models could be used, for instance, to flood the internet with even more spam, financial scams, and disinformation.

Despite these concerns, Meta executives argue that their strategy is not as risky as many believe. They maintain that releasing the technology can eventually strengthen the ability of Meta and other companies to fight back against abuses of the software.

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