Prime Highlights
- Meta introduces Llama 4, its new premium line of AI models, with improved multimodal abilities.
- The models are applied in Meta products, including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, to offer better AI assistance.
Key Facts
- Llama 4 uses a mixture of experts (MoE) architecture to maximize task performance.
- Access is restricted in the European Union due to regulatory and data privacy purposes.
Key Background
Meta has officially launched its Llama 4 models—Scout, Maverick, and Behemoth—to fulfill its artificial intelligence vision. All three of them have multimodal capabilities, trained on a wide range of text, image, and video datasets to create more context-attuned intelligence. Llama 4 Scout and Maverick are already up on Meta products and via partners like Hugging Face, while Behemoth continues to develop.
The Llama 4 models utilize a mixture of experts (MoE) architecture, a new approach where different “expert” modules perform different tasks in speeding up and enhancing efficiency. The architecture allows the models to be more powerful but consume less computational resources—hence being more scalable to real applications.
Meta’s cross-app AI assistant, Meta AI, now uses Llama 4 as its platform. It has been rolled out across Meta’s family of apps, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, in over 40 countries. Those features are currently largely English-only and targeted at U.S. users, though broader availability is likely in the works.
The news comes as the AI industry is increasingly threatened by competition, particularly from Chinese research lab DeepSeek, whose models are equivalent to or better than earlier versions of Llama. The competition has led Meta to develop more efficient, more robust AI systems.
Under development, Meta has enforced stringent use restrictions on Llama 4. Such organizations in the EU are barred from procuring access to the models as of now, purportedly due to AI and data-protection regulatory problems. Besides this, such businesses with more than 700 million monthly active users have to acquire special approval from Meta, once again allowing additional authority to the tech giant in controlling the usage of its models.
These strategic actions represent Meta’s commitment to be a premier AI player, leading innovation through navigating evolving legal and ethical landscapes.