Meta Criticized over Open-Source AI Branding

Open Source Initiative (OSI), a software standards organization, criticized Meta Platforms for confusing the public by promoting its Llama models as open source. The group told the Financial Times that the social media company is polluting the definition and creating confusion about which models are truly open.

For AI models to be open source, companies need to disclose training algorithms and other software used to develop them, in addition to being open about what is known as models’ weights, a numerical parameter defining the signal’s strength between neural networks, argued OSI. The group's executive director Stefano Maffulli said that Meta’s open-source labelling of its AI is extremely damaging when regulatory bodies are backing the development of true open-source technologies. Maffulli pointed out that Google and Microsoft have stopped promoting their models as open source, but discussions with Meta failed to produce a similar result.

IBM head of research, Dario Gil, also lamented a lack of transparency regarding Meta Platform’s publications, which explain the technicalities of its model developments. However, he added the company’s models provide a better alternative to black-box models or models whose internal workings are not made available to the public. Further, the license used by Meta Platforms also prevents its rivals from using its family models, which contradicts the meaning of open source, despite allowing anyone to download the systems free of charge.

“Existing open source definitions for software do not encompass the complexities of today’s rapidly advancing AI models. We are committed to keep working with the industry on new definitions to serve everyone safely and responsibly within the AI community,” Meat said. The Facebook owner opened up access to its model Llama 2 in 2023, at the time noting this would allow a generation of developers and researchers to test its models. Today, its Llama models have been downloaded more than 400 million times.