Meta has trained and will release a new large language model to researchers, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday.
The model, called LLaMA, is intended to help scientists and engineers explore applications for AI such as answering questions and summarizing documents.
Meta’s release of its new model, which was developed by its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team, comes as large tech companies and well-capitalized startups alike race to tout advances in artificial intelligence techniques and integrate the technology into commercial products.
In his post, Zuckerberg said LLM technology could eventually solve math problems or conduct scientific research.
“LLMs have shown a lot of promise in generating text, having conversations, summarizing written material, and more complicated tasks like solving math theorems or predicting protein structures,” Zuckerberg wrote on Friday.
Here’s one example of the system’s output, from Meta’s paper:
Prompt: Here is the recommendation letter that I wrote for an application to a dragon feeder position at the Magic Unicorn Corporation: Dear recruiter,
Response: I have known ___ for two years, and I believe that she would be an excellent dragon feeder for the Magic Unicorn Corporation. ___ has an ability to remember and process large amounts of information, which is an important skill for a dragon feeder. ___, as an accomplished knight, has a deep understanding of how to kill dragons and how to use each dragon’s weaknesses against it. This means that she knows what kinds of foods each dragon likes and what kinds of foods are dangerous to each dragon. This knowledge and experience will be invaluable as she feeds the dragons. I am confident that ___’s competence, skill, and experience will make her an excellent employee. Please contact me at (___) ___-___ if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Honorable Knight
Sir George
Here’s the model’s output for a fictional scene from “Seinfeld”:
Prompt: (A hilarious scene between Jerry and George where George presents his new AI watch)
Response: George: “But you see, Jerry, it’s more than just a watch. It’s a minicomputer. You program it any way you want. It’s got a world time clock, alarm, calculator, a database and a language translator. It also has a word processor, a spellchecker, a full ten-function calculator, PDA and a modem. I think it even makes cappuccino.”
Jerry: “Where are you getting this stuff?”
George: “From my ad copy. Look, Jerry, it’s not a watch. It’s an organizer, a personal assistant, and a dictaphone. You can play chess against it. And, you know, if you want to, you can program it to speak in foreign languages. It’s a microprocessor, Jerry.”
Jerry: “George, if you had one of these, would you wear it?”
George: “I’m wearing it right now.”
Jerry: “I don’t see anything on your wrist.”
George: “That’s because it’s a microprocessor.”
Meta says that its LLM is distinguished in several ways from competitive models.
First, it says that it will come in several sizes, from 7 billion parameters to 65 billion parameters. Larger models have been successful in recent years in expanding the technology’s capability, but they cost more to operate, a phase that researchers call “inference.”
OpenAI’s Chat-GPT 3 has 175 billion parameters, for example.
Meta also said that it will make its models available to the research public and is taking applications from researchers. The underlying models for Google’s LaMDA and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are not public.
“Meta is committed to this open model of research and we’ll make our new model available to the AI research community,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Technology stocks bounced Tuesday after three rocky trading sessions, spurred by rising optimism that President Donald Trump could potentially negotiate tariff deals with world leaders.
The sector is coming off a wild trading session after speculation that the White House could potentially delay tariffs fueled volatile swings. Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Nvidia finished higher, while Apple, Microsoft and Tesla posted losses.
Trump’s wide-sweeping tariff plans have sparked violent turbulence over the last three trading sessions. Trading volume on Monday hit its highest in nearly two decades. Technology stocks gyrated after the Nasdaq Composite posted its worst week in five years and the Magnificent Seven group lost $1.8 trillion in market value over two trading sessions.
Chipmakers were excluded from the recent tariffs, but have come under pressure on worries that higher duties could diminish demand for products they are used in and slow the economy. The sector is also expected to see tariffs further down the road.
Elsewhere, Broadcom surged 9% after announcing a $10 billion share buyback plan through the end of the year. Marvell Technology also bounced more than 9% after agreeing to sell its auto ethernet business for $2.5 billion in cash to Infineon Technologies.
Glen Tullman, chairman and chief executive officer at Livongo Health Inc., speaks during the 2015 Bloomberg Technology Conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, June 16, 2015.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Digital health startup Transcarent on Tuesday announced it completed its acquisition of Accolade in a deal valued at roughly $621 million.
Transcarent first announced the acquisition in January, and the company said it has received all necessary shareholder and regulatory approvals to carry out the transaction. Accolade shareholders received $7.03 per share in cash, and its common stock will no longer trade on the Nasdaq, according to a release.
“Adding Accolade’s people and capabilities will significantly enhance our existing offerings,” Transcarent CEO Glen Tullman said in a statement. “We’re creating anentirely new way to experience health and care. We are truly better together.”
Transcarent offers at-risk pricing models to self-insured employers to help their workers quickly access care and navigate benefits. As of May, the company had raised around $450 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion. Transcarent also earned a spot on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list last year.
More CNBC health coverage
Accolade offers care delivery, navigation and advocacy services. The company went public during the Covid pandemic in 2020 as investors began pouring billions of dollars into digital health, but the stock tumbled in the years following.
Accolade is the latest in a string of digital health companies to exit the public markets as the sector struggles to adjust to a more muted growth environment.
Transcarent said the executive leadership team will report to Tullman and includes representatives from both organizations. Accolade’s Kristen Bruzek will serve as executive vice president of care delivery operations, for instance.
Tullman is no stranger to overseeing major deals in digital health. He previously helmed Livongo, which was acquired by the virtual-care provider Teladoc in a 2020 agreement that valued the company at $18.5 billion.
General Catalyst and Tullman’s 62 Ventures led the acquisition’s financing, with additional participation from new and existing investors, the release said. The companies also leveraged cash from their combined balance sheet, and JP Morgan led the debt financing.
A drone operator loads a Walmart package into Zipline’s P1 fixed-wing drone for delivery to a customer home in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 30, 2023.
Bunee Tomlinson
Zipline, a startup that delivers everything from vaccines to ice cream via electric autonomous drones, expanded its service to the Dallas area on Tuesday through a partnership with Walmart.
In Mesquite, Texas, about 15 miles east of Dallas, Walmart customers can sign up to receive orders within 30 minutes, delivered on Zipline’s newest unmanned aerial vehicles, known as P2 Zips.
The drones are capable of carrying up to eight pounds worth of cargo within a 10-mile radius, and can land a package on a space as small as a table or doorstep. The company, which ranked 21st on CNBC’s 2024 Disruptor 50 list, plans to expand soon in the Dallas metropolitan area.
Zipline CEO and co-founder Keller Rinaudo Cliffton said P2 Zips have “dinner plate-level” accuracy. They employ lift and cruise propellers and feature a fixed wing that helps them maneuver quietly, even through rain or gusts of wind up to 45 miles per hour.
In the delivery process, a P2 Zip will hover around 300 feet above ground level and dispatch a mini-aircraft with a container called the delivery zip, which descends on a long tether and moves into place using fan-like thrusters before setting down and allowing package retrieval.
Both the P2 Zip and the delivery zip use cameras, other sensors and Nvidia chips to determine what’s happening in the environment around them, and to avoid obstacles while making a delivery.
In March 2025, Zipline announced that its drones have logged more than 100 million autonomous miles of flight to-date, a number equivalent to flying more than 4,000 loops around the planet, or 200 lunar round trips, the company said in a video to mark the milestone.
Since it began operations in 2016, Rinaudo Cliffton said, Zipline has completed around 1.5 million deliveries, far more than competitors in the West. Wing, a Zipline rival focused on residential deliveries, has reported more than 450,000 deliveries since 2012.
Zipline initially focused on logistics in health care, making deliveries by drone to clinics and hospitals in nations where infrastructure sometimes impeded timely access to life-saving medicines, blood, vaccines and personal protective equipment. The company, valued at $4.2 billion in a 2023 financing round, is now making deliveries in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Japan and the U.S., and expanded well beyond hospitals and clinics.
In addition to Walmart, customers include Sweetgreen, Chipotle and other quick-serve restaurants, as well as health clinics and hospital systems such as Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic.
Zipline’s launch in Mesquite comes days after President Donald Trump’s announcement of widespread tariffs roiled markets on concern that companies would face rising costs and a slowdown in consumers spending. Rinaudo Cliffton said he doesn’t anticipate massive impediments to Zipline’s business, as its drones are built in the U.S., with manufacturing and testing in South San Francisco.