Definition
Plain language
Meta's family of freely downloadable AI language models.
As stated in the literature
Meta's open-weight LLM series (Llama 1 through 4, including MoE variants such as Maverick), widely used as a base for fine-tuning and as a baseline in evaluations.
Also called: Llama-2, Llama-3, Llama-3.1, Llama-3.3, Llama-4, Llama 4, Llama 4 Maverick, Maverick
Why it matters: The Llama family is a backbone of open AI research, so its capabilities and licensing terms shape what independent labs and startups can build.
For example, a researcher might fine-tune Llama-3-8B on medical Q&A to build a specialized assistant without paying for proprietary model access.
Heard on the show
“Llama, Alpha, names that don't correspond to any real system.”Episode 001 — When AI Models Quietly Protect Each Other From Shutdown