Social media leader Meta, previously Facebook, has announced it will share its open-source Llama AI models with US Defense agencies and contractors to support national security and further America’s competitive edge in AI.
In a policy shift, Meta will allow US government agencies and national security contractors to work with its Llama AI, relaxing restrictions on the use of its large language models and edging Llama towards a more open-source classification.
Meta’s Nick Clegg shared on Monday that US government agencies and private firms, including Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, and Amazon, will have access to Llama for applications in logistics planning, cybersecurity, and threat assessment.
He added, “We believe it is in both America and the wider democratic world’s interest for American open source models to excel and succeed over models from China and elsewhere. As open source models become more capable and more widely adopted, a global open source standard for AI models is likely to emerge, as it has with technologies like Linux and Android.”
“This will happen whether the United States engages or not. This standard will form the foundation for AI development around the world and become embedded in technology, infrastructure, manufacturing, and global finance and e-commerce.”
Unveiled by Meta AI in February 2023, Llama is a series of large language models (LLMs) designed to understand and generate human-like text, assisting with tasks like data analysis, translation, and content creation.
Significantly, this follows a Reuters report from a few days ago indicating that Chinese institutions tied to the People’s Liberation Army are developing a chatbot based on Llama for intelligence collection and decision support.
Noteworthy is the fact that Meta has expressed interest in working with the US Government in the past.
Meta’s recent release of Llama 3.2, with enhanced text and image processing and mobile-compatible versions, involved collaborations with Qualcomm and MediaTek to make it accessible on mobile chipsets.