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Chinese military researchers have created a military chatbot using Meta's open-source Llama model, sidestepping the company's license terms that explicitly forbid such applications.

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Reuters reports that major Chinese research institutions connected to the People's Liberation Army have developed an AI tool for military use based on Meta's publicly available Llama model.

In a research paper from June, translated by Reuters, six Chinese researchers from three institutions—including two from the Academy of Military Sciences (AMS)—outline their work on a chatbot called "ChatBIT."

The team modified Meta's Llama-13B model specifically for military purposes, training it on 100,000 military conversation records. The researchers suggest the chatbot could assist with information gathering, processing, and operational decision-making, though Reuters notes the paper doesn't specify exact military applications.

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Open-source challenges

When contacted by Reuters, a Meta spokesperson insisted that military applications violate the terms of use for the Llama models. But this just goes to show that Meta has limited control over how its models are used, especially when they're running on servers in other countries.

The existence of ChatBIT adds to growing concerns in the US about freely available AI models. The New York Times reported in the summer that Chinese tech companies are creating AI systems that rival leading U.S. technology, in part by using Western open-source tools.

A US government-commissioned report earlier this year warned about AI's national security risks. The authors proposed to stop releasing open-source models with weights. While published AI models without weights would remain accessible, they would be harder to modify without additional resources.

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Summary
  • Chinese military researchers created a military-focused chatbot called "ChatBIT" using Meta's open-source Llama AI model, raising concerns about the use of publicly available AI technology for defense applications.
  • The researchers fine-tuned the Llama-13B model with 100,000 military conversation datasets to optimize it for military tasks, according to a research paper reviewed by Reuters. The paper does not specify the exact intended applications for the chatbot.
  • Meta stated that using Llama models for military purposes goes against their terms of service. However, the company has limited control over how its open-source models are used once released.
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Online journalist Matthias is the co-founder and publisher of THE DECODER. He believes that artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the relationship between humans and computers.
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