Alibaba's cloud unit clients to get access to Meta's AI model Llama - report
Robert Way
Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) cloud unit said it has become the first Chinese enterprise to support Meta Platforms' (NASDAQ:META) open source artificial intelligence (AI) model Llama 2, enabling its Chinese business users to make programs off the large language model (LLM), Reuters reported.
Last week, Meta said it was introducing its open source LLM Llama 2, in collaboration with Microsoft (MSFT), for free for research and commercial use. Meta made Llama 2 available in the Azure AI model catalog, enabling developers using Microsoft Azure to build with it and use their cloud-native tools for content filtering and safety features.
Meta had said that its preferred partner for Llama2 was Microsoft but it would also be available through other partners.
"Today, Alibaba Cloud has launched the first training and deployment solution for the entire Llama2 series in China, welcoming all developers to create customised large models on Alibaba Cloud," Alibaba Cloud said on its WeChat account.
The Llama 2 move could help Alibaba bolster its AI plans by keeping track of the latest developments in the technology. The U.S. has been mulling restrictions on Chinese companies' access to certain U.S.-made technologies. In June, the U.S. was weighing new restrictions on AI chip exports to China.
In April, Alibaba unveiled its LLM, saying that Alibaba Cloud will roll out its own ChatGPT-like product Tongyi Qianwen, which will have Chinese and English language capabilities. In June, the company noted that it was building the AI model in its messaging app DingTalk and meeting assistant called Tingwu.
Generative AI services have taken the world by storm, since the launch of Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT. Companies around the world have launched their own LLMs, Baidu's (BIDU) Ernie Bot, Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen and Tongyi Wanxiang. Google's (GOOG) (GOOGL) Bard, OpenAI's DALL-E, Midjourney Inc.'s Midjourney, to name a few.
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