Meta says it’s making its Llama models available for US national security applications

To combat the perception that its “open” AI is aiding foreign adversaries, Meta today said that it’s making its Llama series of AI models available to U.S. government agencies and contractors in national security.

“We are pleased to confirm that we’re making Llama available to U.S. government agencies, including those that are working on defense and national security applications, and private sector partners supporting their work,” Meta wrote in a blog post. “We’re partnering with companies including Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Anduril, Booz Allen, Databricks, Deloitte, IBM, Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, Scale AI, and Snowflake to bring Llama to government agencies.”

Oracle, for example, is using Llama to process aircraft maintenance documents, Meta says. Scale AI is fine-tuning Llama to support specific national security team missions. And Lockheed Martin is offering Llama to its defense customers for use cases like generating computer code.

Last week, Reuters reported that Chinese research scientists linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of China’s ruling party, used an older Llama model, Llama 2, to develop a tool for defense applications. Chinese researchers, including two affiliated with a PLA R&D group, created a military-focused chatbot designed to gather and process intelligence as well as offer information for operational decision-making.

Meta told Reuters in a statement that the use of the “single, and outdated” Llama model was “unauthorized” and contrary to its acceptable use policy. But the report added much fuel to the debate over the merits and risks of open AI.

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