Meta has granted the U.S. military access to its Llama AI model to support logistics, cyber defense, and counter-terrorism efforts. Partnering with Microsoft and Amazon, Meta aims to bolster U.S. technological leadership in open-source AI.
Meta stated that the preservation of the United States “technological advantage” over China and other competitors would be facilitated by the sharing of open-source AI technology among the country and its allies.
US Military Access to Llama AI Model
Meta, a social media and technology company, has recently granted access to its artificial intelligence model Llama to the United States military and defense contractors for national security purposes.
In a Nov. 4 statement, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, stated that Llama will enhance America’s cyber defenses, monitor terrorist financing, and simplify complex logistics and planning.
The company will collaborate with Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Oracle, Palantir, and other technology leaders to provide comprehensive services to the United States government.
Mark Zuckerberg’s organization underscored the significance of the United States and its allies’ continued advocacy for open-source technologies in order to preserve their “technological advantage” over China and other competitors.
“Open source systems have been critical to helping the United States build the most technologically advanced military in the world and, in partnership with its allies.”
Clegg observed that open-source systems have facilitated the acceleration of defense research and high-end computation, as well as the identification of security vulnerabilities and the enhancement of communication.
“[It] enhances the delivery of public services, drives efficiency, and enables discoveries and breakthroughs, all of which are advantageous to the public sector.”
National security is “inextricably linked” with economic output, which would also benefit the US private sector significantly, according to Clegg.
“Other nations – including China and other competitors of the United States – understand this as well, and are racing to develop their own open source models, investing heavily to leap ahead of the US.”
This occurred mere days after Reuters reported that Chinese research institutions affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army had implemented an early version of Meta’s Llama in developing their AI military tools for intelligence collection and processing. Reuters cited a report that it had obtained.
A Meta executive responded by asserting that the People’s Liberation Army’s apparent utilization of Llama is “unauthorized” and violates the Meta’s acceptable use policy.
The new multi-company partnership will enable Oracle to enhance Llama’s capabilities by synthesizing aircraft maintenance documents. This will enable technicians to more effectively diagnose issues, expediting the repair process and restoring the aircraft to service.
To ensure the security of sensitive data, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure will host Llama on their cloud solutions.
Scale AI is “fine-tuning” Llama to support specific national defense missions, such as planning operations and identifying adversary vulnerabilities. At the same time, aerospace firm Lockheed Martin has incorporated Llama into its “AI Factory” to process and conduct data analyses.
Accenture, Anduril, Booz Allen, Databricks, Deloitte, Leidos, and Snowflake are also involved.
