Chinese researchers associated with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military wing of China's ruling party, have reportedly developed a tool for defense use using Meta's “open” AI.
According to Reuters, Chinese researchers, including two from the People's Liberation Army's research and development group, used Meta's Rama 2 AI model to create a military-specific chatbot. The chatbot, called ChatBIT, is designed to not only collect and process information, but also provide information for operational decision-making, Reuters reports.
Mehta told Reuters in a statement that the use of a “single and outdated” Llama model (Llama 2 is about a year old) is “unauthorized” and violates the terms of service. Reuters said it could not confirm ChatBIT's functionality or computing power.
The report provides some of the first evidence that the Chinese military is looking to leverage open models for defense purposes, and is sure to further the debate over the benefits and risks of open AI.