According to a report by the Financial Times, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is planning to launch a commercial version of its artificial intelligence (AI) model. The aim of this release is to expand the usage of Meta’s AI technology and allow companies to customize it to their specific needs. The company has already introduced its language model called LLaMa earlier this year, but the upcoming commercial version is expected to be more widely accessible.
The move is seen as Meta’s attempt to compete with industry leaders like Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Google. Meta’s high-level strategy, as revealed by a source familiar with the matter, is to challenge the dominance of OpenAI in the AI landscape.
“Meta realized they were behind on the current AI hype cycle, and this gives them a way to open up the ecosystem and seem like they are doing the right thing, being charitable and giving back to the community.”
The commercial version of LLaMa will enable startups and businesses to build customized software and applications utilizing Meta’s underlying AI technology. While Meta’s current models are open-source and free, there have been discussions within the company about offering a paid version for enterprise customers. However, this paid version would not be part of the imminent release.
Meta legal challenges
In contrast to competitors like OpenAI, Meta has made its LLM models open-source, meaning that the system’s operations are publicly available. This move is seen as a way for Meta to catch up with the current AI hype cycle and portray itself as charitable, giving back to the community.
However, these developments come at a time when the Company is facing legal challenges. Author Sarah Silverman, along with two other authors, has filed a lawsuit against the Company, alleging copyright infringement in the training of its AI systems. OpenAI, too, has been hit with a similar class-action lawsuit, accusing the company of data theft during the training of its models.
