Meta and Microsoft Unveil Llama 2 AI Models for Azure and Windows Platforms
20th July’23, New Jersey: In an unprecedented move, tech giants Meta and Microsoft have announced their joint support for the revolutionary Llama 2 family of large language models (LLMs) on Azure and Windows platforms. This groundbreaking development is set to unleash a new era of transformative possibilities, captivating the world’s imagination with the promise of reshaping industries and revolutionizing the way we work.
Today, at the highly anticipated Microsoft Inspire event, Meta and Microsoft made a historic announcement, introducing Llama 2, a powerful AI tool designed to empower developers and organizations worldwide to build generative AI-powered tools and experiences.
The partnership between Meta and Microsoft is rooted in their shared commitment to democratizing AI and making its benefits accessible to all. With Meta adopting an open approach with Llama 2, developers will now have greater freedom in the types of models they build on, supporting open and frontier models for cutting-edge innovation.
Azure customers can now seamlessly fine-tune and deploy the Llama 2 models with varying parameters, including 7B, 13B, and 70B, on the Azure platform. Known for being the world’s most widely adopted frontier and open model platform, Azure provides a robust and secure environment for developers to harness the full potential of Llama 2 models.
Additionally, Meta’s Llama 2 will be optimized to run natively on Windows, enabling Windows developers to leverage the power of AI with ease. By targeting the DirectML execution provider through the ONNX Runtime, developers can effortlessly integrate Llama 2 into their applications, offering users an unparalleled AI-driven experience.
The Meta-Microsoft collaboration has a rich history, with previous successful joint efforts, such as the integration of ONNX Runtime with PyTorch on Azure. This latest announcement further solidifies their partnership, signaling their dedication to accelerating innovation in the era of AI.
Azure’s purpose-built AI supercomputing platform stands at the forefront of AI research and development, boasting a facility, hardware, and software uniquely designed to support the world’s leading AI organizations. The integration of Llama 2 models into Azure AI unlocks a world of possibilities for developers, providing them with powerful tools for model training, fine-tuning, and inference, while ensuring top-notch AI safety capabilities.
Llama 2’s inclusion in Windows is a significant milestone, positioning Windows as the ultimate destination for developers to craft personalized AI experiences for their customers’ needs. With cutting-edge tools like Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Windows Terminal, Microsoft Visual Studio, and VS Code, developers can now fine-tune LLMs directly on their Windows PCs, further advancing the AI revolution.
As part of Microsoft’s dedication to responsible AI, they have adopted an iterative, layered approach to mitigate potential risks associated with large language models. Azure AI customers can test Llama 2 using their own data samples to evaluate its performance for specific use cases. Additionally, prompt engineering and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) techniques are utilized to create safer and more reliable experiences for end-users.
The collaboration between Meta and Microsoft exemplifies a shared vision of building a responsible, open, and inclusive AI ecosystem. The Llama 2 models’ integration into the Azure AI model catalog, which serves as a hub for foundation models, marks another significant stride towards democratizing AI innovation.
The world stands at the brink of an AI revolution, and with Llama 2 now accessible on Azure and Windows, developers and organizations can embark on an exciting journey, unlocking the full potential of AI to shape the future of industries and redefine human interaction with technology.
