Meta has unveiled its new artificial intelligence system “Llama 2” rivalling the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. The Facebook parent company’s chief Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that the new AI system, created after partnering with Microsoft, is free to use for research and commercial purposes in contrast to its competitors. Microsoft also said it aims to “democratise AI and its benefits” with the launch of Llama 2. A previous version known as Llama, had been launched in February, but leaked onto the internet in March and was tinkered with by the public since. Compared to some of their Big Tech rivals developing large AI language models, Meta and Microsoft said they seek to provide “an open approach”, offering researchers and companies a peek into the data and code they use to build their AI. “We believe an open approach is the right one for the development of today’s AI models, especially those in the generative space where the technology is rapidly advancing,” Meta noted in a blog post. “Giving businesses, startups, entrepreneurs, and researchers access to tools developed at a scale that would be challenging to build themselves, backed by computing power they might not otherwise access, will open up a world of opportunities for them to experiment, innovate in exciting ways, and ultimately benefit from economically and socially,” the tech giant noted. The new AI system Llama 2 is in contrast with other chatbots like ChatGPT by OpenAI and Bard by Google that are not open source. “Open source drives innovation because it enables many more developers to build with new technology,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “It also improves safety and security because when software is open, more people can scrutinize it to identify and fix potential issues. I believe it would unlock more progress if the ecosystem were more open, which is why we’re open sourcing Llama 2,” he said. However, despite Meta’s claims of open-sourcing its new AI system, the data it used to build Llama 2 still remains unclear. A research paper released along with the new model says it was trained on “a new mix of data from publicly available sources, which does not include data from Meta’s products or services”, but does not mention specifically what data was used. The paper, however, noted that Meta removed data from websites containing a “high volume of personal information about private individuals”. The new AI models can be directly downloaded or via a partnership, which makes them available on Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure, Meta said. “Starting today, Llama 2 is available in the Azure AI model catalog, enabling developers using Microsoft Azure to build with it and leverage their cloud-native tools for content filtering and safety features,” it said. “It is also optimized to run locally on Windows, giving developers a seamless workflow as they bring generative AI experiences to customers across different platforms,” it said. Llama 2 is also available via Microsoft’s rival Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Hugging Face, among other providers, Meta said. Read More Threads starts limiting how many posts people can see as it is hit by spam attacks $44 billion and eight months later. It’s finally all over for Elon Musk ChatGPT rival with ‘no ethical boundaries’ sold on dark web Xbox and PlayStation sign major deal on the future of Call of Duty Microsoft changes its default typeface for only the second ever time Microsoft’s attempt to buy Call of Duty developer reaches huge new development

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New AI tools that use generative artificial intelligence to manipulate photos have rendered traditional editing tools like PhotoShop obsolete, according to experts. One recently unveiled product called DragGAN allows users to radically alter pictures – from facial expressions to the layout of a landscape – with no prior editing experience. Developed by researchers at Google and the Max Planck Institute of Informatics, DragGAN works through a system that uses multiple points that users can “drag” to create different effects without compromising the image’s realism. “RIP Photoshop,” wrote tech entrepreneur and AI commentator Lorenzo Green. “In just a few clicks, you’ll be able to edit any image exactly the way you want... The applications are endless.” Examples of applications include changing the position of the Sun in the sky, altering the size and setting of a vehicle and editing an animal’s head to change its expression and shape. A research paper detailing the technology explained how the approach can “hallucinate occluded content, like the teeth inside a lion’s mouth”, while also deforming an object’s rigidity, like the bending of a horse’s leg. “Through DragGAN, anyone can deform an image with precise control over where pixels go, thus manipulating the pose, shape, expression, and layout of diverse categories such as animals, cars, humans, landscapes, etc.,” the paper stated. Other features recently launched by generative AI companies include Stability AI’s upscaler that allows users to quadruple the resolution of an image without compromising the sharpness of the original. “Since the emergence of digital imagery, it has been nearly impossible to expand small images into larger ones without compromising the quality of the image,” the company wrote in a recent blog post detailing the advance. “Upscaling adds to popular tools by expanding small images into larger ones while maintaining – or even improving – their level of detail.” While these tools currently go beyond what Adobe’s Photoshop is capable of, the photo editing giant announced earlier this year that it is working on generative AI models. Collectively dubbed Firefly, the next-generation features will allow creators to create images, audio, video, illustrations and 3D models with simple text inputs. “Generative AI is the next evolution of AI-driven creativity and productivity, transforming the conversation between creator and computer into something more natural, intuitive and powerful,” David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s Digital Media Business, said in March. He added that the tools would help customers by “increasing productivity and creative confidence... from high-end creative professionals to the long tail of the creator economy.” Read More 10 ways AI will change the world – from curing cancer to wiping out humanity WhatsApp will let people change messages after they are sent New Twitter boss says ‘game on’ over Instagram clone rumours Meta hit with record €1.2 billion fine

For years people have been looking to the skies for signs of alien life - but maybe, they should have been looking at the bottom of the ocean this whole time. A Harvard physicist has claimed that parts of an alien 'spacecraft' could have been uncovered under the sea. Professor Avi Loeb set off on a search along the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and found 50 iron pieces which originated from the IM1 meteor. IM1 crashed off the coast of Papua New Guinea and Leob believes it could contain key information in the search for life out there in the universe, saying he hasn’t discounted the idea of the pieces being evidence of a “spacecraft” from an “extraterrestrial technological civilization” which crashlanded on Earth. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Loeb is currently the head of Harvard’s Galileo Project, focusing on the search for aliens, and he said the fragments they found must have come from “a natural environment different from the solar system, or an extraterrestrial technological civilization.” Speaking to Fox News Digital, Loeb detailed his thoughts on the origins of the meteor fragments by saying: “Given IM1's high speed and anomalous material strength, its source must have been a natural environment different from the solar system, or an extraterrestrial technological civilization.” He added that IM1 “is actually tougher and has material strength that is higher than all the space rocks that were catalogued by NASA. That makes it quite unusual.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Astronomers have spotted the moment a black hole "turned on". While looking for the collision of a neutron star with another object, which should result in a kilonova (an explosion which reddens then fades over time), they stumbled upon an event which remained extremely bright. They soon worked out this light was because of supermassive black hole called J221951-484240 which had been on for around 10 months. But then they had to work out what had caused it, and got stuck between two causes, “J221951 is consistent with being nuclear, so the scenarios we are being left are a tidal disruption event or an active galactic nucleus,” lead author Dr Samantha Oates said as she presented the research at the National Astronomy Meeting 2023. “Looking at the spectrum it's consistent with both categories.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter A tidal disruption event (TDE) takes place when a star or a gas cloud gets too close to a supermassive black hole. The material is ripped apart, and begins to shine as the black hole feeds Alternatively, it could be an active galactic nucleus (AGN), the phase of a supermassive black hole where it is consistently feeding in a frenzy. “We hope in future to distinguish between these two scenarios,” Dr Oates concluded. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.