Mark Zuckerberg Won't Just Open-Source Instagram's Code But Would He Do It For A $10B AI Model? He Says, Well…

Meta Platforms Inc. META CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the company will open source even a $10 billion AI model, days after the Llama 3 AI model was announced.

What Happened: Zuckerberg said the decision to open source a piece of software developed by Meta Platforms is based on the potential future benefits it can result in, instead of the research and development cost it incurs.

Podcaster Dwarkesh Patel asked Zuckerberg if he would open source an AI model that cost $10 billion in research and development costs. Zuckerberg quipped, "Well, as long as it is helping us, then yeah."

Zuckerberg wasn't flummoxed by the $10 billion amount – instead, his focus was on what he could achieve by giving away the research to the open-source community. He also mentioned that while Meta doesn't open source the code of its products like Instagram, they do it for the "low-level infrastructure" that others can then build on.

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"We have a long history of open-sourcing software. Probably the biggest one in our history was our Open Compute project, where we took the designs for our servers and network switches and data centers and made it open source."

Zuckerberg was referring to an internal program at Facebook called "Project Freedom" where the company released designs of servers and other infrastructure.

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This led to standardization and supply chains being built around Meta's designs. "It got cheaper for everyone and saved us billions of dollars."

"If people figure out how to run models cheaply, we're going to spend like $10 billion or $100 billion or more over time. If we can do that 10% more effectively, we're saving billions or tens of billions of dollars."

"That's worth a lot by itself."

Why It Matters: This comes shortly after Meta Platforms unveiled its new AI model, the Llama 3, which outperformed other AI models in benchmark tests. The Llama 3 model is expected to be available to cloud providers and model libraries soon.

Meta Platforms also announced new features in its Meta AI assistant, including expanded availability and real-time image creation capabilities. These developments are indicative of Meta’s continued commitment to innovation and technological advancement.

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Photo courtesy: Brian Solis via Flickr