Meta Unveils Llama 2: A Powerful AI Chatbot Model for Modern Applications, to Rival ChatGPT & Google Bard

California based tech conglomerate Meta, the company behind platforms like Facebook and Instagram has recently introduced a new generative AI language model dubbed Llama 2. The new family of AI models is aimed at driving modern chatbot applications to rival major chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Bard.

Llama 2 exhibits significant performance improvements over its predecessor, Llama, thanks to training on a diverse range of publicly available data.While the original Llama models were initially limited in access due to concerns of misuse, Llama 2 takes a different approach, offering free access for both research and commercial purposes.

a big day https://t.co/5CTqULsfuT

— Meta (@Meta) July 18, 2023

Distinguishing features of Llama 2

1. Increased accessibility: Unlike its predecessor, Llama 2 is freely available for fine-tuning on popular platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Hugging Face's AI model hosting platform.

It has also been optimised for Windows devices and Qualcomm's Snapdragon system-on-chip, expanding its reach to smartphones and PCs.

2. Versatile offerings: Llama 2 comprises two main variants: Llama 2 and Llama 2-Chat, with the latter fine-tuned specifically for two-way conversations. Each variant further includes models of varying sophistication, ranging from 7 billion to 70 billion parameters.

These parameters define the model's skill in generating text and code, making Llama 2 adaptable to different use cases.

Addressing challenges and biases

While Meta highlights the strengths of Llama 2, they also acknowledge its limitations. In benchmarks against closed-source competitors like GPT-4 and PaLM 2, Llama 2 falls slightly behind, particularly in computer programming.

However, human evaluators find Llama 2 to be as "helpful" as ChatGPT, indicating its practical utility. Meta admits that, like other generative AI models, Llama 2 exhibits biases. For instance, it tends to generate "he" pronouns more frequently than "she" pronouns due to imbalances in the training data.

Additionally, Llama 2's training data skews towards a Western perspective, leading to potential biases in topics related to religion. Meta emphasises the importance of addressing biases and encourages safe development and deployment practices.