Meta Shares Rise After Open Sourcing a Powerful AI To Compete With Chinese Models

Meta will open source one of its most powerful AI models, Muse Spark 1.2, as it seeks to compete with Chinese counterparts.

Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement as part of a lengthy essay in which he stood by AI advances. He added that Meta will also release several open-source models called Muse Glimmer.

Company shares were up almost 2% following the announcement and before markets opened.

They have fallen about 10% so far this year, recently plunging after its earnings report for the second quarter, in which investors scrutinized the company's massive capital expenditure, set to be up to $145 billion this year.

In a passage of the essay, Zuckerberg urged Washington to lift guardrails that stifle progress: "Foreign labs currently hold several advantages here since American labs have to comply with many additional restrictions on training data. US policy must reduce this additional friction if we want American open source models to lead over time."

"I do not believe restricting access to foreign open source models is an effective solution. Our goal should be for American open source models to be the best globally. This requires removing the hurdles that make it harder for American open source models to compete," he added.

Zuckerberg went on to say the U.S. needs to "rethink" policies in different areas. He also appeared to criticize OpenAI and Anthropic for making progress despite warning about the technology's impact.

"It is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom. I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity's relevance would rush to build that future," he said.

In this context, Sen. Bernie Sanders called on three of the U.S.'s most influential artificial intelligence companies, including Zuckerberg's Meta, to pause AI development.

"Mr. Altman, Mr. Amodei and Mr. Zuckerberg: In the interest of humanity, stand by your words. Pause AI development," Sanders wrote in a letter shared first with Axios. "It is not too late to avoid disaster. Stop building machines that humans cannot control."

Sanders followed that with a warning about congressional action.

"Let me be very clear: If you do not take appropriate action now, my colleagues and I in the U.S. Senate will," he wrote.