😺 Meta's Llama 3 is here!

PLUS: "Open-source" for dummies

Welcome, humans.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said the company will spend over $100B to build AI. $100 billion! Is that even a real number? That’s enough to buy a moderately-sized country (think Slovakia or Ecuador) or purchase every cat video on the internet—twice!

Here’s what you need to know about AI today:

Meta unveiled Llama 3, its most powerful AI model yet.
Meta is integrating AI across all its social platforms for 3B users.
Llama 3 400B will be the first open-source chatbot to rival ChatGPT-4.
Microsoft introduced an AI capable of making still images “sing” and “talk”.

Meta makes a MASSIVE AI push with Llama 3.

Meta

BREAKING: Meta released its most powerful AI model, Llama 3, as a standalone app (meta.ai) and is embedding it into WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

This is big. Actually—huge. Scratch that, it’s META!

Llama 3 is now the top dog in open-source AI models.

It comes in three flavors: 8B, 70B, and 400B. Note:

The 70B model performs similarly to Claude Sonnet (which powers the free Claude).

Meta AI
The 400B model (STILL IN TRAINING) will be competitive with ChatGPT-4 and Claude 3 Opus.

Why this matters: Meta AI has become another solid chatbot that can handle all the tasks you're already using AI for (writing, coding, etc.). It’s on par with Claude Sonnet, the leading free chatbot.

Meta AI also connects to the internet, so you can receive real-time info, and can create/animate images (they'll literally materialize as you type).

OK.

The deeper implication here is that Meta aims to position its chatbot as central to how its 3B users (!) interact with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

Meta

For instance, you could use Meta AI…

on WhatsApp, to answer any query you might typically Google (like "calmest cats for a small NYC apartment").
on Facebook to ask for more info about something you see, like a post of a Boomer flexing their new hardwood floors.
on Instagram, to generate animated AI images to share with pals over DMs.

Here’s our take: Thumbs up for Meta AI (the chatbot), thumbs down for Meta AI (the social media integrations).

Llama 3 is a big achievement for open-source, but whether people truly want a constant AI presence in their Instagram feeds remains to be seen.

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Llama 3 = open-source = more control building with AI.

open-source VS. closed-source before Llama 3

Meta’s announcement isn’t important just cause Llama 3 is a top-tier model, it’s important cause Llama 3 is a top-tier open-source model.

Open-source = an AI model’s recipe (its code, architecture, training process) is fully accessible for anyone to see, use, or download. For free.

This contrasts sharply with closed-source models like GPT-4 and Claude 3, whose inner workings are hush-hush. And here's why open-source matters:

It’s open—everyone can see what's under the hood, which is crucial for collabing on and safeguarding such powerful tech as AI.
It’s essentially free—companies can customize Llama for specific applications without relying on API calls to models like GPT (basically paying ChatGPT to respond to questions).
It’s “local”—your data stays on your own devices, not with some third-party software, and you can use it without internet.

Around the Horn.

WTF!

Layoff alerts for buzzy AI startups: Tome cut 20% of its workforce, and Stability AI laid off 10% of its employees.
Here's a breakdown of 12 of the fastest-growing AI companies (OpenAI boasts $2B ARR, Anthropic at $150M ARR, and CoreWeave at $465M ARR).
To Unlock AI Spending, Microsoft, OpenAI and Google Prep ‘Agents’ (link).
Slack rolled out its AI features, which include channel summaries, to all paying users.

Treats To Try.

*Diffuse, an AI app by Higgsfield, transforms your selfies into personalized dancing videos, memes, emotes, and more. Creators love it—50% share their creations from the app. Download Diffuse on iOS and Android today.
HuggingChat is a free app that lets you test all the top open-source AI models in one spot.
Flair AI, an AI design tool for product images, just launched real-time props for mimicking professional photo shoots.
Vapi lets developers build, test, and deploy voicebots in minutes (think customer support for barbershops, restaurants, & websites).
Leap provides automation workflows for marketing and sales teams to automate things like content generation and email outreach.
Adobe’s new AI image and video features are available in its Adobe Express App on iOS and Android.

*This is sponsored content. Advertise in The Neuron here.

Intelligent Insights.

A.I. Has a Measurement Problem (link).
Mark Zuckerberg on Dwarkesh Podcast - Llama 3, $10B Models, Caesar Augustus, Bioweapons, & 1 GW Datacenters (link).
Find the best AI-powered app to transcribe your audio (link).
How I Built an AI-Powered, Self-Running Propaganda Machine for $105 (link).
Is there enough text to feed the AI beast? (link).
Generative AI’s Open Secret: Everyone Is Copying Everyone Else (link).
The Smartest Way to Use AI at Work (link).