Microsoft Inspire and Meta have joined forces to announce their support for the Llama 2 family of large language models (LLMs) on Azure and Windows.
The primary goal of Llama 2 is to empower developers and organizations in creating generative AI-powered tools and experiences. Both Meta and Microsoft share a common commitment to democratizing AI and its advantages, said Microsoft in an announcement.
In this partnership, developers now have the freedom to choose the types of models they want to build on, with full support for open and frontier models. Meta has selected Microsoft as its preferred partner for the launch of Llama 2 to commercial customers, marking a significant milestone.
With this collaboration, Azure customers gain access to the 7B, 13B, and 70B-parameter Llama 2 models, which they can easily fine-tune and deploy on Azure. Azure stands as the go-to platform for widely adopted frontier and open models, ensuring a secure and efficient deployment process.
Furthermore, the Llama model will be optimized to run locally on Windows. Windows developers can now incorporate Llama into their applications by targeting the DirectML execution provider through the ONNX Runtime. This integration allows for a seamless workflow, facilitating the integration of generative AI experiences into their projects. The combination of Llama 2’s capabilities and the widespread reach of Azure and Windows will undoubtedly lead to groundbreaking AI-driven innovations.
