Meta lifts ban on military use of AI

Facebook’s parent company Meta previously had a policy prohibiting the use of AI in the military. Now, however, the tech giant is reversing course and approving the use of the technology by both the US military and private military companies.

The tech giant’s AI language model Llama has now been made available to over a dozen US government agencies and private military companies. Among the companies approved to use the technology are Lockheed Martin, Booz Allen Hamilton and Palantir Technologies, Bloomberg reports.

Meta has described its AI models as open-source, but they have previously been completely banned from use in the context of military warfare, the nuclear industry or espionage.

Authorities and companies in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will also have access to Llama. These countries are part of the Five Eyes group and thus share intelligence information with each other.

Meta will have no influence on how the AI model is used. Instead, it is up to each actor to use the technology in an ethical and responsible manner, in accordance with applicable international law.