Meta Releases Largest Open-Source Artificial Intelligence Model
After Meta said it would not release its next multimodal AI outside of Europe , the company is now releasing Llama 3.1 , an open-source AI model that rivals ChatGPT and Google Gemini in performance. The model now has 405 billion parameters, achieved by training on 16,000 enterprise-grade Nvidia GPUs. What does this mean to you, other than some existential dread about how much money and energy it must cost? Improved chats in Meta AI and a new feature that can generate AI images with your participation.
It’s the largest open-source artificial intelligence model, and the company is already working with companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to help developers integrate it into their apps. It can also be downloaded for free here , and developers can even use it to improve their own models. Non-developers are probably better off using the version already built into WhatsApp and Meta AI , although users will switch from the 405 billion options version to the 70 billion options version if they find too many bugs in the chatbot.
According to benchmark results published by Meta, Llama 3.1 performed several points better than other models in most tasks, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, with GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet providing the toughest competition. Users are unlikely to notice the difference, but Meta is betting on the combination of performance and open source availability to attract more developers to its side.
In addition to additional options, Llama 3.1 now supports French, German, Hindi, Italian and Spanish. Instagram and Facebook are a little behind in the update, but Mehta says social media sites will be updated with it in the coming weeks.
Right now, the most exciting way to test out Llama 3.1 is with the new Imagine Me feature , which allows the AI to scan your face and then put it into AI images. You can ask the bot to turn you into an astronaut or depict you with a different hair color. In the case of Apple’s Genmoji, you can even use Imagine Me to create stickers of yourself.
Meta also allows Meta AI to be used when posting to Facebook or Instagram, which could make it easier for a company to tag AI-generated images on the site since posts generated this way will already be tagged. If you can’t beat them, I guess join them.