Picture a world where misinformation is quickly and accurately addressed, ensuring that the public has access to reliable information.

These visions are becoming a reality thanks to Meta’s groundbreaking Llama technology and the innovators harnessing its power to drive change in Africa.

Recent breakthroughs in AI, and generative AI in particular, have captured the public’s imagination and demonstrated what those developing these technologies have long known — they have the potential to help people do incredible things, create a new era of economic and social opportunities, and give individuals, creators, and businesses new ways to express themselves and connect with people.

As part of Meta’s commitment to open science, the company announced the release of Llama (Large Language Model Meta AI) in February 2023, a cutting-edge foundational large language model designed to advance research in AI.

Like other large language models, Llama works by taking a sequence of words as input and predicting the next word to recursively generate text.

Following this initial release, Meta introduced Llama 2, Llama 3, Llama 3.1 and the most recent iteration, Llama 3.2.

Over the past few years, Meta’s Llama models have demonstrated new capabilities, including generating creative text, solving mathematical theorems, predicting protein structures and answering reading comprehension questions.

The two largest models of the Llama 3.2 collection, 11B and 90B, support image reasoning use cases, such as document-level understanding including charts and graphs, captioning of images, and visual grounding tasks such as directionally pinpointing objects in images based on natural language descriptions.

The lightweight 1B and 3B models are also highly capable with multilingual text generation and tool calling abilities.

With more than 400 million downloads, companies are using Llama to create localised educational content, summarise video calls, and provide medical information in low-resource settings.

These projects highlight the significant potential AI has to benefit billions of people worldwide.

As technology continues to evolve, innovative minds across Africa are leveraging its power to address pressing social challenges and drive meaningful change.

Two such innovators, Dr. Olubayo (Bayo) Adekanmbi and Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi, are at the forefront of this movement, using Meta’s Llama technology to create solutions that have the potential to transform lives in health, education, finance and digital governance.

Dr. Olubayo (Bayo) Adekanmbi: Leveraging Llama 2 for Social Good

Olubayo Adekanmbi, the CEO of Data Science Nigeria (now known as equalyzAI), is a leading figure in AI research and development.

He’s passionate about using AI to empower individuals and bridge the digital divide. EqualyzAI is building a unique hyperlocal multimodal dataset, models and APIs that unlock the potential of generative AI for native dialect speakers in Africa.

They focus on creating Large Language Models (LLMs) for African languages that can be fine-tuned in response to specific health, finance, agriculture and education needs.

One such innovation is a personalised learning platform, ULearn, built with Llama 2. This platform allows students, teachers and even parents to generate multimedia learning content for elementary science that caters to students’ individual needs, enhancing their learning experience and engagement. Imagine personalised lesson plans, flashcards and animated videos tailored to the needs of every student!

This revolutionary approach transforms education from a one-size-fits-all model to a personalised learning journey.

Additionally, equalyzAI empowers market women with financial literacy tools, fostering economic growth and community stability. Their AI-driven healthcare solutions also improve accessibility and coverage, especially in underserved regions.

Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi: Revolutionising Fact-Checking with Llama 3

Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi, a youth leader and researcher, is dedicated to leveraging technology for social good.

His focus is on the transformative potential of digital governance in driving positive social change. Olasupo has developed various civic tech products to enhance public engagement and digital governance.

Among them is MyAIFactChecker, which tackles the critical issue of misinformation by providing accurate and user-friendly fact-checking capabilities.

MyAIFactChecker Fact-checks Information in Three Main Nigerian Languages in 30 Seconds

MyAIFactChecker leverages Llama 3’s advanced capabilities to address the misinformation problem effectively.

Llama 3’s state-of-the-art contextual understanding and generative AI capabilities enhance the accuracy and relevance of fact-checking.

This user-friendly platform, MyAIFactChecker, supports multiple languages, including French, Swahili and Nigerian local languages, offering a truly inclusive user experience. This multilingual capability, combined with the voice option for fact-checking, breaks down language barriers and offers a more inclusive user experience.

One of the primary impacts of MyAIFactChecker is its ability to rapidly and accurately assess the validity of claims. Traditional fact-checking methods often struggle with the sheer volume of information and can be slow to respond.

By utilising Llama 3 and advanced search APIs, MyAIFactChecker automates the process, allowing for real-time analysis of claims against a broad range of sources.

These models’ advanced contextual understanding and generative capabilities enable the platform to deliver nuanced, detailed responses that go beyond simple true/false evaluations.

This results in more accurate and informative fact-checking that reflects the complexities of the claims.

Olubayo Adekanmbi and Olasupo Abideen are leading the charge in using AI for social good, demonstrating how Meta’s Llama technology can be harnessed to address critical challenges in education, healthcare and misinformation.

Their work not only showcases the transformative potential of AI but also underscores the importance of innovative approaches to solving some of the most pressing issues facing Africa today.

Through their efforts, they are paving the way for a future where technology serves as a powerful catalyst for positive societal change.

With advanced features and improved capabilities built into Llama 2, Meta aims to redefine the landscape of natural language processing.

Inside the model, researchers and developers will discover a host of impressive enhancements. Meta’s Llama 2 offers a wide range of pretrained and fine-tuned language models, boasting an unprecedented parameter range from 7 billion to 70 billion. 

These models have been meticulously trained on a massive 2 trillion tokens, providing an extensive context length that surpasses its predecessor, Llama 1. The fine-tuned models have undergone rigorous training with over 1 million human annotations, ensuring unparalleled performance and accuracy.

In terms of benchmarks, Llama 2 has surpassed expectations, outperforming other open source language models across various domains. From reasoning and coding to proficiency and knowledge tests, Llama 2 consistently demonstrates its remarkable capabilities, setting new standards in the field of language modeling.

The launch of Llama 2 has received immense support from a diverse network of global partners. Meta’s commitment to open AI innovation has garnered endorsements from major industry players such as Microsoft, LG, Y Combinator, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Spotify, AWS, IBM, and many others. This widespread enthusiasm and collaboration highlight the significance of an open approach to advancing AI technology.

Ensuring responsible development is a top priority for Meta. With a strong focus on safety and performance, extensive red-teaming exercises have been conducted for Llama-2-chat. External partners and internal teams have diligently tested the model, identifying and addressing any potential issues. This ongoing commitment to maintaining safety and performance standards guarantees users a secure and reliable experience.

To foster a responsible and collaborative AI ecosystem, Meta has established a range of resources for users across different domains. Whether individuals, creators, developers, researchers, academics, or businesses of any size, Meta is dedicated to providing the necessary tools and support to maximize the potential of Llama 2.

Today, Meta proudly unveils Llama 2, offering free access for research and commercial use. Researchers and developers worldwide can now explore the extensive capabilities of Llama 2 by accessing the model weights and starting code. 

With Llama 2, Meta ushers in a new era of possibilities in natural language processing, empowering users to unleash their creativity and unlock the full potential of AI.