Chinese researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta's Llama
Papers show China reworked Llama model for military tool
China's top PLA-linked Academy of Military Science involved
Meta says PLA 'unauthorised' to use Llama model
Pentagon says it is monitoring competitors' AI capabilities
Adds Meta statement, paragraph 11
By James Pomfret and Jessie Pang
Nov 1 (Reuters) -Top Chinese research institutions linked to the People's Liberation Army have used Meta's publicly availableLlama model to develop an AI tool for potential military applications, according to academic papers and analysts.
In a June paper reviewed by Reuters, six Chinese researchers from three institutions, including two under the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) leading research body, the Academy of Military Science (AMS), detailed how they had used an early version of Meta's Llama as a base for what it calls "ChatBIT".
The researchers used an earlier Llama 2 13Blarge language model (LLM) that Meta META.O , incorporating their own parameters to construct a military-focused AI tool to gather and process intelligence, and offer accurate and reliable information for operational decision-making.
ChatBITwas fine-tuned and "optimised for dialogue and question-answering tasks in the military field", the paper said. It was found to outperform some other AI models that were roughly 90% as capable as OpenAI's powerful ChatGPT-4.The researchers didn't elaborate on how they defined performance or specify whether the AI model had been put into service.
"It's the first time there has been substantial evidence that PLA military experts in China have been systematically researching and trying to leverage the power of open-source LLMs, especially those of Meta, for military purposes," said Sunny Cheung, associate fellow at the Jamestown Foundation who specialises in China's emerging and dual use technologies including AI.
Meta has embraced the open release of many of its AI models, including Llama. It imposes restrictions on their use, including a requirement that services with more than 700 million users seek a license from the company.
Its terms also prohibit use of the models for "military, warfare, nuclear industries or applications, espionage" and other activities subject to U.S. defence export controls, as well as for the development of weapons and content intended to "incite and promote violence".
However, because Meta's models are public, the company has limited ways of enforcing those provisions.
In response to Reuters questions, Meta cited its acceptable use policy and said it took measures to prevent misuse.
"Any use of our models by the People's Liberation Army is unauthorized and contrary to our acceptable use policy," Molly Montgomery, Meta's director of public policy, told Reuters in a phone interview.
Meta added that the United States must embrace open innovation.
"In the global competition on AI, the alleged role of a single, and 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," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
The Chinese researchers include Geng Guotong and Li Weiwei with the AMS's Military Science Information Research Center and the National Innovation Institute of Defense Technology, as well as researchers from the Beijing Institute of Technology and Minzu University.
"In the future, through technological refinement, ChatBIT will not only be applied to intelligence analysis, but also ... strategic planning, simulation training and command decision-making will be explored," the paper said.
China's Defence Ministry didn't reply to a request for comment, nor did any of the institutions or researchers.
Reuters could not confirm ChatBIT's capabilities and computing power, though the researchers noted that its model incorporated only 100,000 military dialogue records, a relatively small number compared with other LLMs.
"That's a drop in the ocean compared to most of these models (that) are trained with trillions of tokens so … it really makes me question what do they actually achieve here in terms of different capabilities," said Joelle Pineau, a vice president of AI Research at Meta and a professor of computer science at McGill University in Canada.
The research comes amid a heated debate in U.S. national security and technology circles about whether firms such as Meta should make their models publicly available.
U.S. President Joe Biden in October 2023 signed an executive order seeking to manage AI developments, noting that although there can be substantial benefits to innovation," there were also "substantial security risks, such as the removal of safeguards within the model".
This week, Washington said it was finalising rules to curb U.S. investment in artificial intelligence and other technology sectors in China that could threaten national security.
Pentagon spokesman John Supple said the Department of Defense recognised that open-source models had both benefits and drawbacks, and that "we will continue to closely monitor and assess competitors' capabilities".
'COOKIE JAR'
Some observers say China's strides in developing indigenous AI, including setting up scores of research labs, have already made it difficult to keep the country from narrowing the technology gap with the United States.
In a separate academic paper reviewed by Reuters, two researchers with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) - which the United States has designated a firm with ties to the PLA - described using Llama 2 for "the training of airborne electronic warfare interference strategies".
China's use of Western-developed AI has also extended into domestic security. A June paper described how Llama had been used for "intelligence policing" to process large amounts of data and enhance police decision-making.
The state-run PLA Daily published commentary in April on how AI could help "accelerate the research and development of weapons and equipment", help develop combat simulation and improve military training efficiency".
"Can you keep them (China) out of the cookie jar? No, I don't see how you can,"William Hannas, lead analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), told Reuters. A 2023 paper byCSET found 370 Chinese institutions whose researchers had published papers related to General Artificial Intelligence - helping drive China's national strategy to lead the world in AI by 2030.
"There is too much collaboration going on between China's best scientists and the U.S.' best AI scientists for them to be excluded from developments," Hannas added.
Additional reporting by Katie Paul in New York; Phil Stewart in Washington, Eduardo Baptista in Beijing and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Editing by Gerry Doyle
Τελευταία νέα
Δήλωση αποποίησης ευθύνης: Οι οντότητες του ομίλου XM Group παρέχουν υπηρεσίες σε βάση εκτέλεσης μόνο και η πρόσβαση στην ηλεκτρονική πλατφόρμα συναλλαγών μας που επιτρέπει στον ενδιαφερόμενο να δει ή/και να χρησιμοποιήσει το περιεχόμενο που είναι διαθέσιμο στην ιστοσελίδα μας ή μέσω αυτής, δε διαφοροποιεί ούτε επεκτείνει αυτές τις υπηρεσίες πέραν αυτού ούτε προορίζεται για κάτι τέτοιο. Η εν λόγω πρόσβαση και χρήση υπόκεινται σε: (i) Όρους και προϋποθέσεις, (ii) Προειδοποιήσεις κινδύνου και (iii) Πλήρη δήλωση αποποίησης ευθύνης. Ως εκ τούτου, το περιεχόμενο αυτό παρέχεται μόνο ως γενική πληροφόρηση. Λάβετε ιδιαιτέρως υπόψη σας ότι τα περιεχόμενα της ηλεκτρονικής πλατφόρμας συναλλαγών μας δεν αποτελούν παρότρυνση, ούτε προσφορά για να προβείτε σε οποιεσδήποτε συναλλαγές στις χρηματοπιστωτικές αγορές. Η πραγματοποίηση συναλλαγών στις χρηματοπιστωτικές αγορές ενέχει σημαντικό κίνδυνο για το κεφάλαιό σας.
Όλο το υλικό που δημοσιεύεται στην ηλεκτρονική πλατφόρμα συναλλαγών μας προορίζεται για εκπαιδευτικούς/ενημερωτικούς σκοπούς μόνο και δεν περιέχει, ούτε θα πρέπει να θεωρηθεί ότι περιέχει συμβουλές και συστάσεις χρηματοοικονομικές ή σε σχέση με φόρο επενδύσεων και την πραγματοποίηση συναλλαγών, ούτε αρχείο των τιμών διαπραγμάτευσής μας ούτε και προσφορά ή παρότρυνση για συναλλαγή οποιωνδήποτε χρηματοπιστωτικών μέσων ή ανεπιθύμητες προς εσάς προωθητικές ενέργειες.
Οποιοδήποτε περιεχόμενο τρίτων, καθώς και περιεχόμενο που εκπονείται από την ΧΜ, όπως απόψεις, ειδήσεις, έρευνα, αναλύσεις, τιμές, άλλες πληροφορίες ή σύνδεσμοι προς ιστότοπους τρίτων το οποίο περιέχεται σε αυτήν την ιστοσελίδα παρέχεται «ως έχει», ως γενικός σχολιασμός της αγοράς και δεν αποτελεί επενδυτική συμβουλή. Στον βαθμό που οποιοδήποτε περιεχόμενο ερμηνεύεται ως επενδυτική έρευνα, πρέπει να λάβετε υπόψη και να αποδεχτείτε ότι το περιεχόμενο δεν προοριζόταν και δεν έχει προετοιμαστεί σύμφωνα με τις νομικές απαιτήσεις που αποσκοπούν στην προώθηση της ανεξαρτησίας της επενδυτικής έρευνας και ως εκ τούτου, θα πρέπει να θεωρηθεί ως επικοινωνία μάρκετινγκ σύμφωνα με τους σχετικούς νόμους και κανονισμούς. Παρακαλούμε εξασφαλίστε ότι έχετε διαβάσει και κατανοήσει τη Γνωστοποίησή μας περί Μη ανεξάρτητης επενδυτικής έρευνας και την Προειδοποίηση κινδύνου όσον αφορά τις παραπάνω πληροφορίες, τις οποίες μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ.
