Meta Platforms, the company formerly known as Facebook, has announced the release of a commercial version of its open-source AI model called Llama.
Meta said Llama 2 will be free for research and commercial use.
This move is aimed at providing start-ups and businesses with a powerful and cost-effective alternative to the expensive proprietary models offered by OpenAI and Google.
The new version of the model, named Llama 2, will be distributed through Microsoft Azure cloud service and will be compatible with the Windows operating system. In a blog post, Meta referred to Microsoft as its preferred partner for the release, indicating a close collaboration between the two companies in the AI business.
Starting today, Llama 2 is available in the Azure AI model catalog, enabling developers using Microsoft Azure to build with it and leverage their cloud-native tools for content filtering and safety features. It is also optimized to run locally on Windows, giving developers a seamless workflow as they bring generative AI experiences to customers across different platforms. Llama 2 is available through Amazon Web Services (AWS), Hugging Face, and other providers too.
Previously, Meta had limited access to the Llama model, providing it exclusively to select academics for research purposes. However, with the commercial release, Llama 2 will be made widely available for download and through other platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Hugging Face.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, highlighted the importance of open-source technology in driving innovation. He stated that open-source models like Llama enable more developers to build with new technology, unlocking greater progress in the field.
Llama has already demonstrated its competitiveness with models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbot. The latest iteration of Llama has been trained on 40% more data than its predecessor and has undergone extensive fine-tuning with over 1 million annotations by humans to enhance the quality of its outputs.
The release of a commercial version of Llama poses a potential challenge to established players in the generative AI software market, such as OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft and offers its models to business customers through Azure. By providing a sophisticated open-source alternative, Llama could disrupt the market and reduce the market share of closed-source models.
Industry experts have expressed their views on the impact of open-source models like Llama. Amjad Masad, CEO of software developer platform Replit, believes that any incremental improvement in open-source models will eat into the market share of closed-source models, as open-source models can be run at a lower cost and offer reduced dependency.
Microsoft’s cloud rivals, Google and Amazon, have also recently announced plans to provide business customers with a range of AI models to choose from. Amazon is marketing access to Claude, an AI model developed by the startup Anthropic, in addition to its own Titan models. Similarly, Google intends to make Claude and other models available to its cloud customers.
When questioned about Microsoft’s support for an offering that may undermine the value of OpenAI, a Microsoft spokesperson stated that providing developers with a choice of models helps solidify its position as the leading cloud platform for AI work.
For Meta, fostering an open-source ecosystem of AI technology built on its models could disrupt the revenue plans of its competitors, whose proprietary technologies may lose value if developers can utilize equally powerful open-source systems free of charge.
