Meta CEO Zuckerberg lays out open

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called, on Monday, August 10, for lower barriers for open source artificial intelligence, as his company introduced a new model that can run on a personal computer.

The launch comes amid debate in the United States on whether access to the technology should be more restricted, and on local pushback against the buildout of data centers that power it. Meta's competitors, OpenAI and Anthropic, largely focus on closed AI models. Zuckerberg's statement was accompanied by a long essay outlining his vision for AI, in which he stressed the need to remain competitive against countries like China, among other issues.

Zuckerberg said, in an Instagram video on Monday, that his company would open up the weights for its latest AI model, enabling it to be downloaded by the public. Weights refer to calculations or rules governing how an AI system behaves.

US open source AI models should 'be the best globally'

Zuckerberg said Meta would also release a new class of open source models, designed to run on a laptop. "Rather than centralizing superintelligence, we should distribute it widely and give every person the ability to direct it," Zuckerberg said in his essay.

He then took aim at other labs that are "focused on building AI for companies, governments or other institutions," arguing that this would tip the balance of power in favor of institutions instead of individuals.

Zuckerberg added that foreign labs hold advantages over US ones, which have to comply with restrictions on training data. "I do not believe restricting access to foreign open source models is an effective solution," he said. "Our goal should be for American open source models to be the best globally. This requires removing the hurdles that make it harder for American open source models to compete," he said.

Amid growing public opposition to data center development in the US, Zuckerberg also added that Meta is launching a fund to directly support communities around its facilities.