SAN FRANCISCO — Meta has unveiled its latest artificial intelligence model, Llama 3.1, claiming it rivals the technologies developed by OpenAI and Google, and it is available for free to all users.

The new model is part of Meta’s ongoing strategy to provide open-source AI solutions, allowing anyone to utilize and modify the technology without incurring costs. This approach could potentially disrupt the business models of major tech companies, enabling startups to compete more effectively against established players like OpenAI. However, it also raises concerns about misuse by malicious actors, including fraudsters and state-sponsored hackers.

Meta’s previous version, Llama 3, was released just three months ago, but Llama 3.1 is trained on a significantly larger dataset, enhancing its capabilities and providing a powerful tool for businesses and organizations looking to integrate advanced AI into their products.

“Llama 3 is competitive with the most advanced models,” stated Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an open letter. “Starting next year, we expect future Llama models to become the most advanced in the industry.”

How does this impact the AI landscape?

The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2022 initiated a competitive race among tech giants to develop new AI products. Microsoft invested billions in OpenAI, while Google developed its own AI models. Unlike these companies, Meta lacks a substantial cloud software business to market its AI solutions.

Meta has opted for an open-source model, aiming to foster an ecosystem where companies without their own AI technologies can utilize Meta’s offerings, thereby increasing its influence in the tech sector, similar to Google’s dominance over the Android operating system.

According to Rob Sherman, Meta’s vice president of policy, the Llama AI models have been downloaded 300 million times by various companies and individuals.

However, this open-source strategy has sparked concerns among politicians, activists, and AI researchers about the potential misuse of technology by geopolitical adversaries or criminals. Previous open-source AI tools have been exploited to create harmful content. Despite these concerns, Zuckerberg defended the open-source approach, arguing that it allows for greater scrutiny by researchers and regulators compared to closed systems.

“Open source will ensure that more people around the world have access to the benefits and opportunities of AI, that power isn’t concentrated in the hands of a small number of companies, and that the technology can be deployed more evenly and safely across society,” he emphasized. Meta also offers tools for companies to assess the safety of their AI systems.

Zuckerberg likened closed AI models to Apple’s restrictive policies for app developers, suggesting that without such constraints, Meta and other companies could innovate more effectively.

As Meta seeks to redefine its future, it is developing a suite of AI products aimed at transforming online shopping and communication.

Earlier this year, Meta began integrating AI across its social media platforms, enabling users to generate images and receive answers to queries within WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.

Despite these advancements, it remains uncertain whether consumers will embrace AI tools in their daily routines. Several high-profile AI launches, including Google’s AI integration into search, have faced setbacks, prompting companies to retract their products.

“We’re in the phase of this where the main goal is getting many hundreds of millions or billions of people to use Meta AI as a core part of what they do,” Zuckerberg noted to investors in April. “That’s the kind of next goal, building something that is super valuable.”