The Rundown: Meta just released Llama 3.1 alongside its prized 405B model, achieving state-of-the-art performance across key benchmarks and becoming the first-ever open sourced frontier model, marking a major milestone in open source AI development.

Cheung: “Can you give us the rundown on everything being released and why it’s important?”

Zuckerberg: “The big release today is Llama 3.1, and we’re releasing three models. This is the first time we’re releasing a 405 billion parameter model. It’s by far the most sophisticated open source model that I think anyone has put out, and it really kind of is competitive with some of the leading closed models and in some areas is even ahead.”

Cheung: “The benchmarks look incredible. Are there any specific real-world use cases that you’re really excited about seeing people build with the models?“

Zuckerberg: “The thing that I’m most excited about is seeing people use it to distill and fine-tune their own models… By our estimates, it’s going to be 50% cheaper, I think, than GPT-4 to do inference directly on the 405B model.”

Why it matters: Zuckerberg views Llama 3.1 as a pivotal moment for open source AI, potentially becoming “the open source AI standard” akin to Linux’s impact on operating systems. By offering a cost-effective, customizable alternative to closed AI systems, Meta aims to democratize AI to empower “every startup, enterprise, and government” to create their own tailored AI solutions.

Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown

The Rundown: Alongside the major AI announcements from Meta, Zuckerberg published an open letter detailing his thoughts on open source AI and it’s benefits for the greater good — which we further explored in our interview.

Cheung: “Can you talk more about what the broad societal implications are of open source AI?”

Zuckerberg: “There are awesome things that AI is going to bring in terms of productivity gains and creativity enhancements for people, and hopefully, it’ll help us with research and things like that. But I think open source is an important part of how we make sure that this benefits and is accessible to everyone, and isn’t something that’s just locked into a handful of big companies.”

Cheung: “One other thing you mentioned in your letter is that open source AI can accelerate innovation and economic growth. How is this already happening, and how do you see this happening more in the future?“

Zuckerberg: “There are a lot of folks today who don’t have access to fine-tune or build their own state-of-the-art models. They’re limited to what large labs do.” Meta wants to give “startups, hackers, academics, and universities access to models they can build on, tweak, and distill down to run on their own devices. This will unlock a ton of progress.“

Why it matters: Zuckerberg’s open-source AI strategy aims to make state-of-the-art AI accessible to everyone, from individuals to nations, potentially starting a new wave of global innovation. He argues this approach is not just more accessible but “safer than the alternative of closed development,” stating that we’ll see a “massive equalizing effect” on technological progress.

Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown

The Rundown: In his open letter, Zuckerberg also discusses the open versus closed AI ecosystem, reflecting on previous personal experience where Meta was constrained by what Apple allowed them to build on their platforms.

Cheung: “I was a little shocked by how directly you called out Apple and their closed approach. Can you expand on that and where Apple has been a blocker for Meta and potentially others?”

Zuckerberg: “I actually don’t know how they’re going to approach AI. They do some open development, they do some closed development. I just think that in this case, open models are going to be the standard, and I think that it’s going to be good for the world.”

Zuckerberg added: “I’m not saying that Apple’s necessarily going to be in the wrong place on this for AI, but if you look back over the last 10 or 15 years, it has been a formative experience for us is building our services on top of platforms that are controlled by our competitors and for a number of different incentives.”

Zuckerberg added: “It’s a little bit soul-crushing when you go build features that are what you believe is good for your community, and then you’re told that you can’t ship them because some company wants to put you in a box so that they can better compete with you.“

Why it matters: Zuckerberg argues that closed systems inherently lead to innovation bottlenecks and unfair competition. His vision for an open AI ecosystem isn’t just about Meta’s interests—it’s about fostering industry-wide innovation and preventing a monopoly on AI development. As he puts it, “I want to restore the industry to the state where the open ecosystem is actually the one that is leading.”

Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown

The Rundown: Zuckerberg predicts a world with billions of personalized AI agents and emphasizes the importance of open source development to ensure widespread benefits and mitigate potential risks.

Cheung: “What’s your 10-year plan or long-term vision of what you think is going to happen with AI and AGI?”

Zuckerberg: “Our vision is that there should be a lot of different AI out there and AI services, not just one singular AI… I think we’re going to live in a world where there are going to be hundreds of millions or billions of different AI agents eventually, probably more AI agents than there are people in the world.“

Zuckerberg added: “Every business in the future, just like they have an email address, a website, and a social media presence today, is going to have an AI agent that their customers can talk to in the future.”

Cheung: “What factors do you think will be crucial in changing anti-AI perspectives?”

Zuckerberg: “I think [open source] is important because if this develops in a way where it’s just a small number of companies that build the products and benefit and people use the products and maybe they like talking to an AI assistant and that’s valuable for them, but if this doesn’t in some way help lift all boats, then I think you end up eventually getting a backlash.”

Why it matters: Zuckerberg’s vision challenges the idea of a singular, dominant AI system. He advocates for “a lot of different AI out there and AI services, not just one singular AI,” aiming to democratize AI. This approach could foster widespread innovation and address societal concerns. As he warns, “If this doesn’t in some way help lift all boats, then I think you end up eventually getting a backlash.”