Chinese researchers associated with the People's Liberation Army have developed an AI tool designed to collect and assess data, aiming to deliver accurate information for military operations.
Tool Overview
A report from Reuters reveals that the tool, named "ChatBIT," is built on an earlier version of the publicly accessible Llama 13B LLM (Large Language Model) created by Meta. In a research paper published in June, the scientists mentioned that ChatBIT had been "optimized for dialogue and question-answering tasks in the military domain."
Policy Conflict
This development directly contradicts Meta's Acceptable Use Policy, which forbids the application of its model for "Military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, espionage, use for materials or activities that are subject to the International Traffic Arms Regulations (ITAR) maintained by the United States Department of State."
In a communication to Reuters, Molly Montgomery, who is Meta's director of public policy, stated that any utilization of their model by the People's Liberation Army is unauthorized and goes against their acceptable use policy.
Response from Meta
Another representative from Meta commented that an outdated "version of an American open-source model is irrelevant when we know China is already investing more than a trillion dollars to surpass the US on AI." This highlights the ongoing competition between the two nations in the field of artificial intelligence.
