As 2023 draws to a close, the debate over the biggest AI story of the year rages on. While ChatGPT, powered by GPT 3.5 and 4, made a tremendous impact in the realm of generative AI, there's a growing argument that Llama, Meta's open-source language model, and the broader open-source AI movement have had an even more significant influence.
Meta introduced Llama in February, which was followed by Llama 2 in July and Code Llama in August. This marked the arrival of a major "open source" large language model (LLM). Since then, the open-source AI community has produced over 7,000 Llama derivatives on the Hugging Face platform, including Koala, Vicuna, Alpaca, Dolly, and RedPajama.
Llama and its offspring have initiated a lively debate on open-source AI. While the debate around open access to source code and model weights, safety and security concerns, and compute costs continues, the open-source AI community has seen significant growth.
Meta's Llama, backed by a Big Tech company's resources, paved the way for open source AI models. The company's commitment to open research and open source initiatives has been a cornerstone of its AI strategy.
Experts believe that open source AI will have a substantial and long-term impact on the AI landscape. This open-access approach is likely to lead to more real-world, impactful generative AI applications and strengthen the foundation for open-source AI solutions.
Closed vs. Open Source AI
The era of closed, proprietary AI models began with ChatGPT. OpenAI's co-founder, Ilya Sutskever, expressed concerns about sharing research due to competitive and safety issues.
Meta's Chief AI Scientist, Yann LeCun, advocated for the release of Llama 2 with a commercial license and model weights, emphasizing the importance of open access to AI models. This move positioned open source AI as a powerful force in the industry.
The debate between ChatGPT and Llama continues. While ChatGPT is recognized as a game-changer in terms of public awareness and business leadership, Llama 2 is lauded for its open-source, commercial-use capabilities, fine-tuning options, and operational scalability.
Llama's effects are expected to reverberate for years. Many startups that have emerged in recent times have been made possible by Llama and its successors, fostering innovation and diversity in the AI space.
The Future of Open Source AI: A Catalyst for Innovation
As regulators scrutinize advanced AI systems, proponents of open source AI seek to protect access to large language models (LLMs). The focus is on ensuring that open AI models remain an asset, rather than a potential threat in the hands of malicious actors.
A vast open-source ecosystem, built on viable high-quality models, has the potential to distribute costs and fuel innovation across a network of companies and organizations. This model allows for efficient fine-tuning and inference without excessive costs.
The debate between ChatGPT and Llama, as well as open source vs. closed source AI, will persist. Experts in the field have varying opinions, but it is clear that open source AI will significantly influence the AI landscape.
The open-source AI community is considered an essential driver of long-term impacts in the AI industry. It is expected to contribute to the advancement of AI in various aspects of work and life.
While ChatGPT had a significant impact in bringing generative AI into the public consciousness and business leadership, Llama and the broader open source AI community have had an influential and long-term impact on the AI landscape in 2023. The debate over their relative importance continues, but both closed and open source AI models are expected to coexist and shape the future of AI.
As 2024 approaches, the influence of Llama and open source AI continues to grow, raising questions about the future of AI research and development in an open and collaborative context.
Read more about Meta's Llama:
Meta's Limited Openness with Llama 2: Balancing AI Innovation and Business Protection
