Voices from the AI beat on Llama 2, Meta’s freebie bid to outpace ChatGPT

This week Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta began offering the latest version of its large language AI model, Llama 2, for free and on an open-source basis. And that’s to commercial concerns as well as academic researchers.

Announcing the move July 18, Meta said it’s working on the giveaway strategy with “preferred partner” Microsoft, a major financial backer of rival model ChatGPT from OpenAI. Plus the model will run in Windows on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. “By making AI models available openly, [we’re hoping] they can benefit everyone,” Meta explained.

The development has stirred up a feeding frenzy among some top technology reporters. Here are a few highlights. 

• “Meta is sticking to a long-held belief that allowing all sorts of programmers to tinker with technology is the best way to improve it.”—Mike Isaac and Cade Metz of The New York Times
   
• Why would Microsoft support an offering that might degrade OpenAI’s value? Because “giving developers choice in the types of models they use would help extend [Microsoft’s] position as the go-to cloud platform for AI work.”—Katie Paul of Reuters
   
• Meta will not directly make money from the deal with Microsoft. However, “it stands to potentially benefit by getting its homegrown AI software in the hands of more users and developers.”—Jonathan Vanian of CNBC
   
• Meta has received more than 100,000 requests from researchers to use its first model, released in February. “But the open-source LLaMA 2 will likely have a far bigger reach.”—Emilia David of The Verge
   
• “While Meta is making the code freely available, it does have an acceptable use policy guiding how it can be used commercially.”—Ina Fried of Axios
   
• “Meta has a large and powerful AI research organization and ample cash to support its work and recruit the best AI talent.”—Mark Sullivan of Fast Company
   
• “There is a possibility that, by giving all comers the chance to launch a rival to ChatGPT, Bard or Microsoft’s Bing chatbot, Meta is potentially diluting the competitive edge of tech peers such as Google.”—Dan Milmo of The Guardian
   
• Meta is working with Qualcomm to make Llama 2 workable on smartphones, tablets and PCs. “These new on-device AI experiences, powered by Snapdragon, can work in areas with no connectivity or even in airplane mode,” Qualcomm said Tuesday.—Corinne Reichert of CNET

More from Meta: July 18 announcement | Downloadable Llama 2 model | Research paper | Technical details