Social media and technology giant Meta (nee Facebook) has announced that it is providing its open-source Llama AI models to US defense agencies and contractors to support national security and strengthen America’s position in the AI ​​race.

Llama will be available to US government agencies focused on defense and national security applications, as well as private partners who support their missions, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post.

By opening Llama to the public sector, Meta aims to contribute to US technological leadership while ensuring ethical standards in artificial intelligence. “This is about supporting the safety, security and economic prosperity of America — and its closest allies,” Clegg said Monday.

released by Meta AI in February 2023, Llama is a series of large language models (LLMs) designed to understand and generate human-like text. These models can process large amounts of information, making them valuable for tasks such as data analysis, language translation, and content generation.

Meta’s decision to supply Llama comes amid increasing competition from countries such as China, where researchers linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have recently been. reported of Reuters to have adapted Meta’s previous Llama 2 model for defense purposes.

Clegg emphasized Meta’s alignment with US interests, stating, “We believe it is both in America’s interest and in the wider democratic world’s interest that American open source models excel and succeed against models from China and elsewhere “.

As part of Meta’s mission to collaborate with US defense agencies, companies such as Oracle, Lockheed Martin and Amazon Web Services are working with Llama to augment processes in logistics, cybersecurity and operational planning.

Oracle is using the AI ​​model to streamline aircraft maintenance and enable technicians to diagnose and address problems faster, according to the blog post.

Lockheed Martin has reportedly integrated Llama into its AI factory, boosting data analysis and code generation capabilities for defense applications. Similarly, Scale AI adjusts the model for national security missions focused on adversarial assessment.

The Meta initiative extends Llama’s capabilities to public sector applications, with partners such as Deloitte deploying the model to help government agencies and nonprofits in areas such as education, energy and small businesses.

The tech giant believes that these responsible and ethical uses of open-source AI models like Llama will not only “support the prosperity and security of the United States, but also help set US open-source standards in the global race to lead AI”.

This release follows the recent release by Meta a Blade 3.2an improved model that offers text and image processing capabilities, with smaller versions optimized for mobile devices. Meta collaborated with Qualcomm and MediaTek to ensure the compatibility of Llama 3.2 with mobile chips, expanding the accessibility of the model.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.