ChatGPT has enjoyed a huge advantage over its competitors, even companies as large as Google. But Meta has recently announced the latest iteration of its AI model, Llama 2 (Large Language Model Meta), along with the open availability of the model for free to developers for research and commercial purposes.
For the first time this year, we may be witnessing the most significant challenge so far to OpenAI’s grip on the world of generative AI.
OpenAI was originally founded as an open-source organization, a point that Elon Musk has made. It’s since then taken a very different path, however, choosing to keep much of the company’s technology behind closed doors.
That’s where Llama 2 comes in to potentially have an even wider impact on how AI is distributed. With all the concerns around ethics, privacy, and copyrighted materials used by ChatGPT, some see an open-source version of this technology as a necessary solution to keep AI within our control.
“Our open-source approach promotes transparency and access,” says Meta in its blog post. “We know that while AI has brought huge advances to society, it also comes with risk. We are committed to building responsibly and are providing a number of resources to help those who use Llama 2 do so too.”
These resources include a responsible use guide, a transparency schematic, and more.
Unlike ChatGPT, though, that doesn’t mean just anyone can go in and play with it. While Llama 2 is open source, companies with over 700 million monthly active users require special permission from Meta to use it. Meanwhile, the AI model does not have a consumer-friendly interface, as it is aimed toward more technical and corporate use cases. Meta says Llama 2 is for those in “tech, academia, and policy who also believe in an open innovation approach to today’s AI technologies.”
Llama 2 appears to have promise as a true ChatGPT competitor. It has also been lauded as having the same power capabilities as ChatGPT.
“It is a huge leap forward for open source, and a huge blow to the closed-source providers, as using this model will offer way more customizability and way lower cost for most companies,” Nathan Lambert, research scientist for AI company Hugging Face, recently wrote in a Substack post that was first publicized in a Business Insider report.
Meta makes some pretty significant impressive claims about just how powerful Llama 2 is. Most notably, Meta says it was trained on more 40% more data than Llama 1.
Meta and its partner, Microsoft, have stated that their collaboration allows developers to use Microsoft Azure to build within Llama 2, allowing not only access to cloud-native tools, but also for developers to optimally run the program locally on Windows. Llama 2 is also available on a number of providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Hugging Face, which establish its credibility among developers. Meanwhile, ChatGPT has had to have compatible alternatives made for different platforms by developers.
Examples include the MacGPT application created by developer Jordi Bruin that allows you to install ChatGPT as a remote browser on your Mac desktop. Even Microsoft’s Bing Chat is based on ChatGPT.
Meanwhile, the quality of OpenAI’s latest language model has recently been called into question as it is seemingly declining in its accuracy and power.
We’ll have to wait to hear more before we know for sure just how powerful Llama 2 is compared to ChatGPT, but for now, it at least seems promising.
There are other companies developing their own AI models, of course, but none have had the commercial advantage ChatGPT has enjoyed since its release.
Google’s Bard AI chatbot is still largely experimental, but is being updated regularly by the brand. Apple is expected to soon join the AI race with its own branded tool, however, details about the chatbot remain limited.
For now, Llama 2 seems to be the most important new AI model in the game, and its open-source nature make it an important counter to ChatGPT.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.