Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a partnership with Microsoft to introduce the next generation of the company’s AI large language model. The technology, known as LLaMA 2, will be available for research and commercial use for free. The model, which rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, has been pretrained on 40% more data than its predecessor. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, aims to differentiate itself by being more open and transparent with its AI development. Zuckerberg believes open-source technology drives innovation and improves safety and security. The partnership with Microsoft includes access to its Azure cloud platform. The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The LLaMA 2 model will also be available through Amazon Web Services, AI startup Hugging Face, and others. Microsoft is described as a preferred partner, as well as a major funder and partner of OpenAI. Meta’s commitment to open-source technology and its collaboration with Microsoft are expected to have a significant impact on the nascent AI market, providing researchers and developers with access to advanced language models for various applications.
