Meta's Llama Impact Grants programme launched in India

Meta has introduced its Llama Impact Grants programme in India, as of August 8, 2024, aiming to broaden the reach of artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities to a global audience.

The programme revolves around the Llama 3.1 AI model, which boasts 405 billion parameters, making it the largest and most advanced open-source AI model available.

The Llama 3.1 Impact Grants are intended to fund the most impactful applications of Meta's open-source AI for societal good. Meta announced that applications for these grants are now open and invites proposals that leverage the latest features and capabilities of the Llama 3.1 model for projects with significant economic and social benefits.

The Llama 3.1 model supports several previously unsupported languages such as French, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai. It excels in general knowledge, steerability, reasoning, mathematics, tool use, and multilingual translation.

This is the second phase of the Llama Impact Grants programme, which will distribute a total of $2 million. The initial phase, which supported innovative applications of Llama 2 and Llama 3, saw over 800 applications from more than 90 countries.

Indian organizations can apply through an open call for applications or through regional events. For the open call, eligible organizations can request up to $500,000 for their projects. The regional events will offer technical support and mentorship, with the chance to receive a specialized award of up to $100,000 in addition to the open call grant.

Meta expressed its belief that AI has unmatched potential to enhance productivity, creativity, and quality of life, driving economic growth and progress in education, science, and innovation. They emphasized that open-source AI ensures widespread access to its benefits and opportunities.