Opening up access to Meta’s Llama models also includes US government suppliers such as Microsoft and Amazon, and aims to help strengthen the country’s position in the race for AI and national security.
Meta has opened its Llama generative AI language models to US government agencies and private companies working with the US on national security. The move, as explained in a lengthy statement published by the company, aims to help strengthen the US position in AI and promote the responsible use of open-source models .
“This type of responsible and ethical use of open-source AI models like Llama will not only support the prosperity and security of the United States, but will also help establish the U.S. open-source standard in the global race for AI leadership ,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of Global Affairs, who signed the note published by the technology company.
“As an American company, and which owes its success in large part to the entrepreneurial spirit and democratic values that the United States defends, Meta wants to play its role in supporting the security and economic prosperity of America ,” adds the same note, which extends the intention of collaboration with “its closest allies” in the country.
Private companies that supply the US government and are covered by the measure include names such as Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle, but also defense companies such as Palantir and Lockheed Martin. In the case of Oracle, for example, the use of LLAMA is being made to synthesize information in documents about aircraft maintenance in order to speed up the diagnosis of problems by technicians who carry out these tasks and allow for faster repairs. Microsoft and Amazon will be using Meta’s LLMs, hosting them “in their secure cloud solutions for sensitive data”.
Meta argues that in a world where national security is inextricably linked to economic output, innovation, and job growth , “the widespread adoption of open-source American AI models serves both economic and security interests.” It notes that “other nations— including China and other U.S. competitors —also understand this and are racing to develop their own open-source models, investing heavily to get ahead of the U.S.”
If there were any doubts about the political nature of the decision, the text also clearly states the importance of such a decision by those who develop technology that is crucial to the future of global innovation. “We believe that it is in the interests of America and the democratic world at large for American open source models to stand out and succeed against those of China and other countries.”
Science and Technology Updates on Blog Forbes