Meta allows US military to use its AI

The move should help American open-source models to excel over those from China and elsewhere, the tech giant has said

Meta will permit US government agencies and contractors working for the needs of national security to use its AI models for military purposes, the tech giant announced on Monday.

The move is a departure from the company’s “acceptable use policy,” which states that its artificial intelligence models are forbidden from being employed in “military, warfare, nuclear industries.”

Meta is “pleased to confirm” that it will share its AI models, named Llama, with federal agencies and defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen, as well as defense-oriented tech firms such as Palantir and Anduril, Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs, said in a blog post.

Large language models are able to “support many aspects of America’s safety and national security,” he wrote. “They can help to streamline complicated logistics and planning, track terrorist financing or strengthen our cyber defenses.”

“The responsible and ethical uses” of Llama for military purposes “will not only support the prosperity and security of the US, they will also help establish US open source standards in the global race for AI leadership,” Clegg argued.

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“We believe it is in both America and the wider democratic world’s interest for American open source models to excel and succeed over models from China and elsewhere,” he said.

Clegg explained the development by saying that “Meta wants to play its part to support the safety, security and economic prosperity of America – and of its closest allies too.” 

A Meta spokesman confirmed to the New York Times on Monday that the firm will also provide access to its AI models to the members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which besides the US includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

In summer, Meta opened its source code to third-party developers amid a tight AI race against rivals such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic.

Last week, Reuters reported that Chinese researchers supposedly associated with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had relied on Llama to create a military-focused chatbot. Meta said in response that the use of its AI model was “unauthorized” and went against the company’s policies.

According to Forbes, OpenAI has recently been trying to secure contracts with the Pentagon. Headed by Sam Altman, the company had quietly amended its usage policies to remove a clause that said that its products cannot be employed for “military and warfare” purposes, the outlet reported last month.

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In late October, the Intercept obtained a procurement document from US Africa Command, which said that AFRICOM believes access to OpenAI’s technology to be “essential” for its mission.