Meta permits Llama use for US military amid Chinese controversy

Meta is making its open-source AI model, Llama, available to US government agencies and military contractors.

The Facebook parent company announced that it’s partnering up with companies like Accenture, Amazon Web Service (AWS), Lockheed Martin, and Oracle to promote “responsible, ethical use of AI.”

Llama is being applied across various sectors to streamline logistics, improve cybersecurity, and support public services, with partners using it for specific tasks like speeding aircraft repairs and supporting national security missions.

“These kinds of responsible and ethical uses of open source AI models like Llama will not only support the prosperity and security of the United States, they will also help establish U.S. open source standards in the global race for AI leadership,” says Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs.

This move means that Meta, an American company, is making an exception to its restrictions on military applications. Its open-source approach also contrasts with companies like OpenAI and Google, which restrict access due to concerns over misuse.

The announcement came at a crucial time as Meta is facing backlash over the use of its Llama model by China.

As Reuters exclusively reported earlier, Chinese researchers affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have used Llama to develop a military-focused AI tool called “ChatBIT” to enhance intelligence processing and decision-making capabilities.

The research, involving several top Chinese military research institutions, indicates that ChatBIT has been fine-tuned for military dialogue and question-answering tasks, reportedly even outperforming some existing AI models.