Is Meta’s ChatGPT Killer Really Open Source?
Tech giant Meta has come under fire for claiming that its new artificial intelligence (AI) system, Llama 2, is open source while imposing significant restrictions on commercial use. The company announced the release of Llama 2, promoting it as a free and open AI model. However, it seems that there are some major caveats hidden in the license agreement.
According to Meta’s license agreement, companies with over 700 million monthly active users, including tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Apple, must obtain express permission from Meta in order to use Llama 2 commercially. Critics argue that a truly open source development should not discriminate in this manner.
In response, the Open Source Initiative (OSI), an organization that advocates for open source software, publicly called out Meta and explained why Llama 2 does not meet the criteria of being open source. OSI emphasized that true open source licenses must allow software to be used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose, without discriminating against individuals or groups, or limiting commercial use.
This is not the first controversy surrounding Meta’s AI systems. The company is already under investigation for the unauthorized release of its previous AI system, Llama 1. However, it is worth noting that Meta has made significant contributions to the open source AI community, particularly through its involvement with Huggingface, one of the largest open source AI communities in the world. In fact, Meta has made more contributions to Huggingface than Google or Microsoft.
Interestingly, while Meta has partnered with Microsoft on Llama 2, it is not an exclusive collaboration. Microsoft is also a major partner of OpenAI, which happens to be Llama’s chief competitor. This allows Microsoft to support both a closed, proprietary system through OpenAI and an open one through Meta.
As the tech world grapples with debates surrounding AI ethics and policies, Meta presents itself as a champion of open source. However, skepticism remains about whether Meta truly upholds the spirit of the open source community. Given the high stakes involved in AI technology, Meta’s handling of these issues will undoubtedly face closer scrutiny in the coming months.
