Meta launched largest ‘open’ AI model in history; Here’s why it matters
Sydney, Aug 2 (The Conversation): In the world of artificial intelligence (AI), a battle is underway. On one side are companies that believe in keeping the datasets and algorithms behind their advanced software private and confidential. On the other are companies that believe in allowing the public to see what’s under the hood of their sophisticated AI models.
Think of this as the battle between open- and closed-source AI.
In recent weeks, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, took up the fight for open-source AI in a big way by releasing a new collection of large AI models. These include a model named Llama 3.1 405B, which Meta’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, says is “the first frontier-level open source AI model”.
For anyone who cares about a future in which everybody can access the benefits of AI, this is good news.
The danger of closed-source AI – and the promise of open-source AI
Closed-source AI refers to models, datasets and algorithms that are proprietary and kept confidential. Examples include ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude.
Though anyone can use these products, there is no way to find out what dataset and source codes have been used to build the AI model or tool.
While this is a great way for companies to protect their intellectual property and their profits, it risks undermining public trust and accountability. Making AI technology closed-source also slows down innovation and makes a company or other users dependent on a single platform for their AI needs. This is because the platform that owns the model controls changes, licensing and updates.
There are a range of ethical frameworks that seek to improve the fairness, accountability, transparency, privacy and human oversight of AI. However, these principles are often not fully achieved with closed-source AI due to the inherent lack of transparency and external accountability associated with proprietary systems.
In the case of ChatGPT, its parent company, OpenAI, releases neither the dataset nor code of its latest AI tools to the public. This makes it impossible for regulators to audit it. And while access to the service is free, concerns remain about how users’ data are stored and used for retraining models.
By contrast, the code and dataset behind open-source AI models is available for everyone to see.
This fosters rapid development through community collaboration and enables the involvement of smaller organisations and even individuals in AI development. It also makes a huge difference for small and medium size enterprises as the cost of training large AI models is colossal.
Perhaps most importantly, open source AI allows for scrutiny and identification of potential biases and vulnerability.
However, open-source AI does create new risks and ethical concerns.
For example, quality control in open source products is usually low. As hackers can also access the code and data, the models are also more prone to cyberattacks and can be tailored and customised for malicious purposes, such as retraining the model with data from the dark web.
An open-source AI pioneer
Among all leading AI companies, Meta has emerged as a pioneer of open-source AI. With its new suite of AI models, it is doing what OpenAI promised to do when it launched in December 2015 – namely, advancing digital intelligence “in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole”, as OpenAI said back then.
Llama 3.1 405B is the largest open-source AI model in history. It is what’s known as a large language model, capable of generating human language text in multiple languages. It can be downloaded online but because of its huge size, users will need powerful hardware to run it.
While it does not outperform other models across all metrics, Llama 3.1 405B is considered highly competitive and does perform better than existing closed-source and commercial large language models in certain tasks, such as reasoning and coding tasks.
But the new model is not fully open, because Meta hasn’t released the huge data set used to train it. This is a significant “open” element that is currently missing.
Nonetheless, Meta’s Llama levels the playing field for researchers, small organisations and startups because it can be leveraged without the immense resources required to train large language models from scratch.
Shaping the future of AI
To ensure AI is democratised, we need three key pilars:
-governance: regulatory and ethical frameworks to ensure AI technology is being developed and used responsibly and ethically
-accessibility: affordable computing resources and user-friendly tools to ensure a fair landscape for developers and users
-openness: datasets and algorithms to train and build AI tools should be open source to ensure transparency.
Achieving these three pillars is a shared responsibility for government, industry, academia and the public. The public can play a vital role by advocating for ethical policies in AI, staying informed about AI developments, using AI responsibly and supporting open-source AI initiatives.
But several questions remain about open-source AI. How can we balance protecting intellectual property and fostering innovation through open-source AI? How can we minimise ethical concerns around open-source AI? How can we safeguard open-source AI against potential misuse?
Properly addressing these questions will help us create a future where AI is an inclusive tool for all. Will we rise to the challenge and ensure AI serves the greater good? Or will we let it become another nasty tool for exclusion and control? The future is in our hands.
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The Sejjil Debuts: Iron Dome’s Nightmare
On Sunday, 15 March, Iran fired several advanced missiles at Israeli and American positions. One missile in particular caught the world's attention — the Sejjil. Iran used this missile in battle for the very first time since the war began on 28 February. So what exactly is this missile, and why is everyone talking about it?
The Sejjil is a ballistic missile, meaning it is launched upward into space and then comes crashing down on its target at terrifying speed. Think of it like throwing a stone high into the sky — except this "stone" weighs over 23,000 kilograms, travels faster than a bullet, and can carry a warhead of up to 1,000 kilograms.
What makes the Sejjil special is that it runs on solid fuel, just like a rocket firecracker — ready to light and go. Older Iranian missiles like the Shahab series ran on liquid fuel, which takes time to fill before launch, like pouring petrol into a car. The Sejjil needs no such preparation. It can be launched very quickly, giving the enemy almost no time to react.
The missile is two-stage, meaning it has two engine sections that fire one after the other — the first pushes it out of the atmosphere, and the second guides it toward the target. It can travel nearly 2,000 kilometres, which means it can easily reach Israel from Iranian soil.
Now here comes the most fascinating part — why it is nicknamed the "dancing missile." During its final approach, the Sejjil can move and change direction at very high altitude. Imagine trying to catch a ball that suddenly zigzags just before reaching you. That is exactly what happens with air defence systems like Israel's famous Iron Dome. The missile's unpredictable movement makes it extremely difficult to shoot down.
It flies at over Mach 13 — that is roughly 17,000 kilometres per hour, more than thirteen times the speed of sound. At that speed, even the most advanced defence systems have very little time to respond.
Iran began developing this missile back in the early 1990s. The first test was in 2008, when it flew around 800 kilometres. Since then, six tests have been conducted. In the sixth test, it reportedly flew nearly 1,900 kilometres, reaching all the way to the Indian Ocean.
Iran has also developed an upgraded version called the Sejjil-2, with improved navigation systems. Some reports claim it can hit a target with less than 10 metres of error — roughly the size of a small room — though this has not been officially confirmed.
In simple words, the Sejjil is fast, hard to stop, quick to launch, and built entirely inside Iran. Its use on 15 March marks a serious escalation, and the world is now watching very closely to see what comes next.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany.)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or position of the publication, its editors, or its management. The publication is not responsible for the accuracy of any information, statements, or opinions presented in this piece.
