Meta makes Muse Spark 1.2 AI model open source

Aug. 10 (UPI) — Meta announced on Monday that its most powerful AI model will be open source, challenging models by OpenAI and Anthropic.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a post on Instagram and a blog post, saying the company’s newest AI model Muse Spark 1.2 can now be used by all. He also announced the incoming launch of Muse Glimmer, a new family of open source models that are laptop friendly.

“Foreign labs currently hold several advantages here since American labs have to comply with many additional restrictions on training data,” Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post on Meta.com. “[U.S.] policy must reduce this additional friction if we want American open source models to lead over time.”

Zuckerberg added that he does not believe restricting access to foreign AI models is “an effective solution.”

“Our goal should be for American open source models to be the best globally,” he wrote. “This requires removing the hurdles that make it harder for American open source models to compete.”

Muse Spark launched in July as a closed AI model, requiring payment to access it. This version of the model will remain closed.

Muse Spark 1.2 is a new version of the model that will be free to use.

Zuckerberg touted the potential of AI and his vision for the technology’s future. One aspect of that future is gaining the trust of users to adopt personal superintelligence agents that can ***ist them with their goals.

“In practice, people will not adopt agents if they do not trust them with sensitive details and tasks, and they won’t trust them if the agents act against people’s interests because they’re aligned with a company’s divergent values instead,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Solving alignment is required to enable billions of people to adopt personal superintelligence agents.”

Meta’s announcement comes as officials across the globe grapple with the potential, sometimes harmful potential, of AI.

Chinese start-ups have released open-source AI models over the past month, turning up the heat on U.S. firms. Lawmakers and officials in the United States are meanwhile weighing how to regulate the industry.

Like Zuckerberg, other tech firms have pushed back against heightened and existing regulations.

“The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened has not led to safe or positive outcomes.”