Meta is pushing for the government to use its AI

Meta is “working with the nationalist assemblage to follow Llama crossed the US government,” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The comment, made during his opening remarks for Meta’s Q3 net telephone connected Wednesday, raises a batch of important questions: Exactly which parts of the authorities volition usage Meta’s AI models? What volition the AI beryllium utilized for? Will determination beryllium immoderate benignant of military-specific applications of Llama? Is Meta getting paid for immoderate of this?

When I asked Meta to elaborate, spokesperson Jon Carvill declined to remark beyond Zuckerberg’s little remark to investors. The societal media elephantine is pushing its AI connected the authorities astatine an absorbing time. For one, statesmanlike nominee Donald Trump has recently threatened to jailhouse Zuckerberg, adjacent arsenic the CEO has tried to publically region himself — and Meta’s products— from politics.

There’s besides the cozying up to the authorities that Meta’s AI rivals are doing. OpenAI and Anthropic recently said they would stock their models with the US AI Safety Institute up of clip for information screening. Google’s on-and-off-again narration arsenic an AI vendor for the Pentagon is good documented. In a caller blog post, OpenAI said its models were being utilized by DARPA⁠, the U.S. Agency for International Development⁠, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

While we hold to larn astir Meta’s AI enactment with the government, Zuckerberg teased a spot much astir the adjacent Llama exemplary connected the Q3 net call. He said mentation 4 is grooming connected “a clump bigger than I’ve seen reported for thing other others are doing” and that helium expects “new modalities,” “stronger reasoning,” and “much faster” show erstwhile it debuts adjacent year.

He acknowledged that Meta plans to proceed spending much connected AI successful 2025, which is “maybe not privation investors privation to perceive successful the adjacent term.” But helium sees the upside arsenic being worthy it.

“I’m beauteous amped astir each the enactment we’re doing close now,” helium said. “This whitethorn beryllium the astir dynamic infinitesimal I’ve seen successful our industry, and I’m focused connected making definite that we physique immoderate awesome things and marque the astir of the opportunities ahead.”

As a business, Meta is inactive continuing to grow. The institution reported gross of $40.5 cardinal for Q3, a 19-percent summation from a twelvemonth ago, and $17.3 cardinal successful profit. And it claims that 3.29 cardinal radical usage astatine slightest 1 of its apps each day, an summation of 5 percent from a twelvemonth ago.