Meta and Microsoft Integrate Llama 2 on Azure and Windows

Meta and Microsoft recently announced their collaboration at Microsoft Inspire, with the intention of introducing support for the Llama 2 language models (LLMs) on Azure and Windows. Llama 2, developed by Meta, enables developers and organizations to create AI-driven tools and experiences. This collaboration underscores both companies’ commitment to making AI accessible to all. Here is Meta’s official statement.

Last week Meta announced that they are ready to launch a commercial AI model and want to compete with OpenAI and Google in the race for generative AI.

Azure customers can now refine and deploy Llama 2 models of 7B, 13B and 70B parameters on Azure, known for supporting open and frontier models. In addition, Llama will be optimized to run locally on Windows, allowing Windows developers to seamlessly integrate Llama into their applications.

MICROSOFT’S COLLABORATION WITH META

Meta and Microsoft have a longstanding partnership in AI, including the integration of the ONNX runtime with PyTorch. The latest collaboration expands Microsoft’s open model ecosystem and further strengthens Azure’s position as the global supercomputing platform for AI.

Azure’s custom AI supercomputing platform, designed to handle demanding AI workloads, supports the Llama 2 models. Developers gain access to powerful tools for model training, fine-tuning, inference and AI security.

The integration of Llama 2 models into Windows elevates Windows to the platform of choice for building custom AI experiences, using tools such as the Windows Subsystem for Linux, Windows Terminal and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Source: Microsoft

EXTENSION OF AZURE AI MODEL CATALOG AND AVAILABILITY FOR WINDOWS

Llama 2 is the latest addition to Azure’s growing AI model catalog, enabling developers and ML professionals to quickly discover, evaluate, modify and deploy large pre-built AI models at scale. The record eliminates infrastructure management problems and supports optimization techniques such as DeepSpeed and ONNX Runtime.

Windows developers can create new experiences with Llama 2 through the GitHub Repo. With the Windows Subsystem for Linux and powerful GPUs, developers can fine-tune Llama 2 models on their Windows PCs.

BUILDING RESPONSIBLY WITH AZURE

Microsoft’s responsible AI approach ensures AI security through iterative, layered measures. Customers can test Llama 2 with their data, use prompt engineering and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) techniques, and take advantage of Azure AI Content Safety for a safer online experience.

The expansion of the model catalog to include Llama 2 and the collaboration with Meta emphasize a responsible and open approach to AI.

Source: Microsoft