Meta has released its highly anticipated Llama 3 large language model (LLM), sending shockwaves through the AI development world. Hailed as “the fastest AI image generator ever seen,” Llama 3 has stolen the spotlight from recent releases by Microsoft, Adobe, and Amazon.
[Related reading: Midjourney now lets you replicate the same character across images]
Image generation
This is probably what most of us are interested in, so I’ll start with Llama 3’s image generation capabilities. According to Meta, it’s “their most powerful large language model under the hood” and “better than ever.” Llama 3 boasts real-time image generation that updates pictures as you type prompts. “You can create images from text in real-time using Meta AI’s Imagine feature,” Meta writes. The company started rolling out the feature in beta on WhatsApp and the Meta AI web in the US. I wanted to try it out, but…
MattVidPro AI tested it out (starting around 14:40 of the video), so you can see it in action:
This innovative feature has some claiming Meta has declared “war on OpenAI [and] Google,” as Forbes reports. Stability AI too, if I may add, considering they also offer image generation that happens as fast as you type.
However, a key difference between Llama 3 and its other competitors is its accessibility. Unlike competitors like OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemini, Llama 3’s advanced features are free and open-source, allowing anyone to use it for research and commercial purposes.
Other Llama 3 features
Other than image generation, Llama 3 also allows you to search for information across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. This enables you to get real-time information without having to switch between different apps. You can ask Meta AI for more information about a Facebook post by accessing it directly from your Facebook Feed. You can also do it so in messages.
Meta gives an example of organizing a ski trip with your friends in a Messenger group chat. You can use the search function directly in Messenger to request Meta AI to locate flights from New York to Colorado and identify the best weekend to go when there’s less of a crowd – all without having to leave the Messenger app. Not sure I’d love Meta to have access to all my plans, trips, itineraries, and all the dumb things I search and talk about with my friends; they already know too much… But to each their own.
Availability
Currently in beta, Llama 3 offers English language access to users in in Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. As I mentioned, it’s also being rolled out in the US.
“The goal eventually is to help take things off your plate, just help make your life easier,” Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer said in an interview, “whether it’s interacting with businesses, whether it’s writing something, whether it’s planning a trip.”
[via Digital Camera World; image generated with Midjourney (ironically)]
