Meta Platforms made its open-source language model Llama 2 commercially available for free, encouraging wider deployments and testing from businesses and start-ups.

The latest Llama 2 chatbot will be available through Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, AWS and an open-source AI platform HuggingFace, running on Windows OS.

Meta Platforms stated “opening access to today’s AI models means a generation of developers and researchers can stress test them, identifying and solving problems fast as a community”.

It also credited companies and individuals across tech, academia and policy who encouraged and supported its decision to make its language model more widely available for various experimentation and innovation across verticals.

“By seeing how these tools are used by others, our own teams can learn from them, improve those tools, and fix vulnerabilities,” added the company.

It is also working with Qualcomm to make Llama 2 available on smartphones, PC, VR/AR wearables and vehicles in 2024 through the Snapdragon processor.

Its previous language model was only available to select researchers and developers and the move is likely to shake up the generative AI market as Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google charge for access to proprietary models.

Meta Platforms is putting more focus on AI, recently announcing a revamp to its computing infrastructure.