Following the release of generative AI models for rendering text, translating languages, and creating audio, Meta Platforms Inc. this week launched a new AI-powered coding tool in its latest attempt to lead the generative AI arena. This is Code Llama, designed to help write computer code and will be available for free. The new tool can write code from human text instructions and can also be used to complete and debug existing code, making it a hot item for many companies and businesses that, since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT at the end of the In the past year, they have flocked to the nascent generative AI market to gain new capabilities and refine their own business processes.
Thus, Code Llama uses generative AI to help developers work faster by suggesting lines of software code with a machine learning system capable of generating and explaining code in natural language, specifically in English. Meta has opted for an open source model and is available for commercial use, which means that other companies will be able to use the technology to build their own tools, Meta sources explained in a blog this week. “Specific publicly available code models can facilitate the development of new technologies that improve people's lives. By releasing code models like Code Llama, the entire community can assess their capabilities, identify problems, and fix vulnerabilities," they explain.
In recent months, Meta has released open source versions of AI technology offered by competitors such as GitHub Copilot and Amazon Code Whisperer, as well as AI-based open source software code generators such as StarCoder, StableCode, and PolyCoder.
Meta, which owns Facebook (Nasdaq:Meta) and Instagram, has released a flood of mostly free AI models this year. Just a few weeks ago, it presented a commercial version of its great linguistic model, LlaMa 2, the technology on which chatbots as popular as ChatGPT, from Open AI, its great competitor, are based. By making its AI chatbot technology publicly available, Meta allows some companies to build chatbots without having to pay for software from OpenAI, Google, or Microsoft.
Similarly, Code Llama will make it easier for companies to build AI coding tools without having to buy products from competitors like Microsoft's aforementioned GitHub Copilot, which is powered by OpenAI. Code Llama will be free for most users, but Meta intends to charge some large companies for access to the software, the company itself has announced, although without specifying which ones.
Meta has invested heavily in generative AI technologies. The company has created a new product group dedicated exclusively to generative AI, and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has expressed his desire to introduce AI into all Meta products. Even internally, Meta encourages its employees to use its AI chatbot, called Metamate, and the company is expected to launch a public chatbot in the coming weeks.
