Meta introduces Llama application programming interface to attract AI developers
By Kenrick Cai
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Meta Platforms on Tuesday announced an application programming interface in a bid to woo businesses to more easily build AI products using its Llama artificial-intelligence models.
Llama API, which was unveiled during the company's first-ever AI developer conference, will help Meta go up against APIs offered by rival model makers including Microsoft -backed OpenAI, Alphabet's Google and emerging low-cost alternatives such as China's DeepSeek.
"You can now start using Llama with one line of code," chief product officer Chris Cox said during a keynote speech onstage.
APIs allow software developers to customize and quickly integrate a piece of technology into their own products. For OpenAI, APIs constitute the firm's primary source of revenue.
Meta, which released the latest version of Llama earlier this month, did not share any pricing details for the API. In a press release, it said the new API was available as a limited preview for select customers and would roll out broadly in weeks to months.
The company also released a standalone AI assistant app earlier on Tuesday. It plans to test a paid subscription service of its AI chatbot in the second quarter, Reuters reported in February.
Meta releases its Llama models largely free-of-charge for use by developers, a strategy CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated will pay off in the form of innovative products, less dependence on would-be competitors and greater engagement on the company's core social networks.
"You have full agency over these custom models, you control them in a way that's not possible with other offers," Manohar Paluri, a vice president of AI, said at the conference. "Whatever model you customize is yours to take wherever you want, not locked on our servers."
DeepSeek, which has also released partly open-source AI models, sparked a stock selloff in January amid concerns over the high costs of AI development needed by top U.S. firms.
At the conference, Meta developers spoke about new techniques they used to significantly reduce costs and improve the efficiency of its newest Llama iteration. Zuckerberg welcomed increased competition that would steer the competitive ecosystem away from domination by a small number of leaders.
"If another model, like DeepSeek, is better at something, then now as developers you have the ability to take the best parts of the intelligence from the different models and produce exactly what you need, which I think is going to be very powerful," Zuckerberg said.
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