Meta’s CEO announced that the AI model Llama 2 will be the biggest rival of ChatGPT which will be available for both commercial and research use for free.

Meta has developed a strong AI system that competes with ChatGPT and Google Bard. The purpose is to provide a free commercial version of its AI model, giving businesses a budget-friendly opportunity.

However, the latest Llama2 will be circulated via Microsoft Azure Cloud services and will work on the Microsoft Windows operating system, with Microsoft being referred to as Meta’s “preferred partner” for this release.

Meta has been similar to other tech giants in pursuing AI advancements, sharing data and code for building AI systems to let external researchers identify and alleviate potential bias and toxicity issues.

Moreover, Qualcomm also revealed its collaboration with Meta to bring LlaMa to phones, laptops, and headsets starting from 2024 onward for AI-powered apps that function without relying on cloud services.

In a press release, Meta shares the decision to open up Llama as an opportunity to give businesses, researchers, and startups access to more AI tools. As per Meta, Llama 2 was trained on 40% more data compared to Llama 1, which has details from publicly available online data sources.

Meta AI model will be available for download directly via Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform along with different content tools and Microsoft’s safety. Microsoft also announced its monthly fee of $30/ user for its AI tools, Microsoft 365 copilot on top of existing service charges for businesses.

After Meta’s initial announcement of the LLaMA model in February, it leaked on 4chan just a few days later. With LLaMA 2 now available to a wider audience, we can expect the emergence of new AI-powered tools based on this model. While Meta received more than 100,000 requests from researchers to access its first model, the open-source nature of LLaMA 2 is expected to extend its influence even further.