Meta’s Open-Source Llama Upsets the AI Horse Race
In May, an unidentified memo purportedly authored by a Google researcher expressing concerns about the company’s future surfaced on the internet. The memo highlighted the company’s preoccupation with the competitive threat of OpenAI’s text-generation technology while neglecting the impact of open-source software, which was rapidly gaining ground. The memo pointed to Llama, a sizable language model developed by Meta, which was initially accessible only to researchers by invitation. However, it quickly leaked on 4Chan and became popular among programmers who adapted and built upon the project. Within a short period, variants like Alpaca and Vicuna emerged, nearly matching the capabilities of ChatGPT but offering greater flexibility for customization on a laptop. The leaked Google memo emphasized the significant impact this open-source model had on the community, enabling anyone to experiment with it. Released the second version of Llama Recently, Meta released the second vers...