Mark Zuckerberg champions open-source AI with Meta’s release of Llama 3.1, calling it a step toward industry standards.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is putting his weight behind “open-source” artificial intelligence — calling it a “path forward” for the industry amid the release of his company’s latest Llama AI model.
On July 23, Mark Zuckerberg said the firm was “taking the next steps toward open-source AI becoming the industry standard” with the release of Llama 3.1, which he described as the first “frontier-level open-source AI model.”
Zuckerberg drew a parallel between the evolution of open-source software Linux from the initially closed-source Unix and the potential future of AI — suggesting that open-source AI will become the industry standard.
“I believe that AI will develop in a similar way. Today, several tech companies are developing leading closed models. But open source is quickly closing the gap.”
Touting the firm’s latest AI, the tech billionaire added that Llama 3 is competitive with the most advanced models and leading in some areas.
The new model can converse in multiple languages, write higher-quality computer code, and solve more complex math problems. It also has 405 billion parameters, which dwarfs previous versions but still trails competitors such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 with a reported one trillion parameters.
He said that starting next year, Meta expects future Llama models to become “the most advanced in the industry.” Still, before that, it is “already leading on openness, modifiability, and cost efficiency.”
“Meta is committed to open source AI,” he said before listing several advantages, including customization, independence from closed vendors, data protection, and developer cost-efficiency benefits.
The company will also benefit from open-sourcing which ensures access to the best technology and avoids lock-ins to competitors’ ecosystems, he said.
He contended that open-source AI can be safer than closed alternatives due to transparency and wider scrutiny, stating that it would also be strategically advantageous for the United States and its allies in their ability to handle “the threat of states with massive resources like China.”
Zuckerberg argued that open-source AI is crucial for a positive AI future, concluding that:
“Open source will ensure that more people around the world have access to the benefits and opportunities of AI, that power isn’t concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies, and that the technology can be deployed more evenly and safely across society.”
The Llama 3.1 release will be an “inflection point in the industry” where most developers begin to use open-source AI primarily, he concluded.
