Meta’s Llama AI Models Hit 1 Billion Downloads Amid Rapid Growth

Meta’s Llama AI Models Hit 1 Billion Downloads Amid Rapid Growth

In a brief message Tuesday morning on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s “open” AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads. That’s up from 650 million downloads as of early December 2024 — a ~53% increase over a roughly three-month period. Image:Larysa Amosova via Getty Llama, which powers Meta’s AI assistant, Meta AI, across the tech giant’s various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is a part of Meta’s yearslong bid to foster a wide-ranging AI product ecosystem. The company makes the models, as well as the tools required to fine-tune and customize them, available for free under a proprietary license. Some developers and companies have taken issue with the Llama license terms, which are somewhat commercially restrictive. Yet Llama has achieved widespread success since launching in 2023. Companies including Spotify, AT&T, and DoorDash use Llama models in production today. That’s not to suggest that Meta hasn’t faced setbacks. Llama is at the …