OpenAI Rules the Changes But Meta Changes the Rules

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the competition between Meta and OpenAI in the AI landscape, analyzing Meta's strategy of open-sourcing its Llama 3 AI model and the potential impact on OpenAI's dominance.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Meta vs OpenAI

1. What is Meta's strategy with the open-sourcing of Llama 3?

• Meta is open-sourcing its Llama 3 AI model, which is a GPT-4-class model, in order to commoditize AI models and undermine the business model of API-based AI startups like OpenAI.
• Meta sees AI models as infrastructure to power other products and services, rather than standalone products. By open-sourcing Llama 3, Meta aims to make AI models widely available and reduce the competitive advantage of private AI models.

2. How does this strategy threaten OpenAI?

• OpenAI's business model relies on selling access to its private AI models via API. The availability of a GPT-4-class open-source model like Llama 3 undermines this model, as customers may choose to use the free Llama 3 instead of paying for OpenAI's services.
• OpenAI is now facing competition from multiple tech giants (Google, Anthropic, Meta) at once, after previously enjoying a period of dominance with GPT-3 and ChatGPT.

3. How does OpenAI plan to respond?

• There are rumors that OpenAI is working on GPT-5, which could potentially outperform Llama 3 and regain OpenAI's technical leadership.
• OpenAI may also need to focus on offering private, customized AI models that provide better safety, privacy, and steerability than the open-source alternatives.

[02] Zuckerberg's Perspective

1. What is Zuckerberg's view on the role of AI models?

• Zuckerberg believes that AI models will not be standalone products, but rather advanced software infrastructure that powers other applications, particularly in the social media and content creation domains.
• He sees Llama 3 as a complement to Meta's products, rather than a product in itself, and is willing to open-source it to commoditize AI models.

2. How does Zuckerberg's perspective differ from OpenAI's?

• OpenAI views AI models as the main course, with a focus on developing increasingly powerful general AI systems.
• Zuckerberg, on the other hand, sees AI models as a means to an end, where the value lies in integrating them into Meta's social media and content creation platforms.

3. What are the potential risks of Zuckerberg's approach?

• If AI models become the entire system rather than just infrastructure, Zuckerberg acknowledges that Meta's strategy of commoditizing AI models could be "trickier" for the company.
• There are concerns that Zuckerberg's primary motivation is to undermine potential competition and force AI startups' margins down to zero, rather than a genuine commitment to open-source principles.