Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is planning an imminent launch of its own ChatGPT killer, according to a Financial Times report published on Thursday.
Although Meta’s large-language model will be open source, the social media conglomerate is said to be working on a monetisation strategy for enterprise-grade usage.
This contrasts with OpenAI’s strategy, where the ChatGPT developer is keeping its code and intellectual property strictly under lock and key.
“The goal is to diminish the current dominance of OpenAI,” one upper-level source at Meta told the FT.
Meanwhile, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg’s social media nemesis Elon Musk is also plotting to usurp OpenAI’s first-mover advantage with large-language model xAI.
xAI’s lofty goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe”.
The company will be led by Musk and a crew of researchers poached from Google DeepMind, Microsoft and OpenAI.
Musk may find himself working with a few former colleagues; as he co-founded OpenAI in 2015.
It’s also a sharp 180 turn from his stance only a few months ago, when he co-signed a letter calling for a six-month moratorium on all AI research.
Both Meta and Musk’s X Corp conglomerate have found themselves on the backfoot ever since Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched the revolutionary ChatGPT application in November 2022.
Google parent Alphabet was quick to release its own ChatGPT rival Bard, sparking an AI arms race among Big Tech competitors.
There’s no telling if Meta or X Corp (or any other entity) will be able to compete with OpenAI’s substantial first-mover advantage, but it definitely marks yet another battle line in the increasingly acrimonious relationship between Zuck and Musk.
Meta’s unbelievably successful launch of so-called 'Twitter killer' Threads lit the flame of war between the two parties.
AI could very well be one of the other players' Waterloo moment.