The move is part of a broader push to develop AI that is more advanced than that of China, with Meta opening up Llama to government contractors including Amazon Web Services, Anduril, Booz Allen, Databricks, Deloitte, IBM, Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, Scale AI, and Snowflake. The White House recently published its first memo on AI national security policy, emphasizing the need to harness AI for national security objectives and accelerate the procurement of AI capabilities from the private sector.
Key takeaways:
- Meta has announced that it will allow US national security agencies and defense contractors to use its open-source artificial intelligence model, Llama, despite its policies typically prohibiting the use of its model for military and warfare applications.
- The company is making exceptions for US agencies and contractors as well as similar national security agencies in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
- Two Chinese researchers associated with the People’s Liberation Army were able to access and use an older version of Llama to develop a chatbot that helped to gather and process military intelligence, which was unauthorized according to Meta.
- The tech industry has long supplied AI technology to US and international defense and national security agencies, and with the government demand for AI models increasing, tech firms are likely to be more motivated than ever to bid for these national security contracts.