Meta Platforms on Thursday released early versions of its latest large language model, Llama 3, and an image generator that updates pictures in real time while users type prompts, as it races to catch up to generative AI market leader OpenAI. The models will be integrated into virtual assistant Meta AI, which the company is pitching as the most sophisticated of its free-to-use peers. The assistant will be given more prominent billing within Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger apps as well as a new standalone website that positions it to compete more directly with Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s breakout hit ChatGPT. The announcement comes as Meta has been scrambling to push generative AI products out to its billions of users to challenge OpenAI’s leading position on the technology, involving an overhaul of computing infrastructure and the consolidation of previously distinct research and product teams. The social media giant equipped Llama 3 with new computer coding capabilities and fed it images as well as text this time, though for now the model will output only text, Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer, said in an interview. More advanced reasoning, like the ability to craft longer multi-step plans, will follow in subsequent versions, he added. Versions planned for release in the coming months will also be capable of “multimodality”, meaning they can generate both text and images, Meta said in blog posts. “The goal eventually is to help take things off your plate, just help make your life easier, whether it’s interacting with businesses, whether it’s writing something, whether it’s planning a trip,” Cox said. Cox said the inclusion of images in the training of Llama 3 would enhance an update rolling out this year to the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, a partnership with glasses maker EssilorLuxottica, enabling Meta AI to identify objects seen by the wearer and answer questions about them.
Full report : Meta AI Declares War On OpenAI, Google With Its New ‘Llama 3’ Artificial Generative Intelligence Chatbot.
