Meta AI Glossary
Meta AI can refer to several overlapping parts of Meta Platforms: the company’s AI research organisations, including FAIR; the Meta AI assistant embedded in Meta products; and the teams that develop the Llama model family. Keeping those meanings separate prevents a research lab, a consumer product, and a model programme from becoming one vague corporate actor.
Llama is Meta’s most important contribution to the local-model ecosystem. Its weights are downloadable and widely adapted, but open-weight is more accurate than unqualified open source: Meta’s community licence includes attribution, acceptable-use, naming, and very-large-service conditions. Meta also operates proprietary products and infrastructure. Its AI strategy is therefore mixed, not a simple contest between an open Meta and closed rivals.
The attempted acquisition of Manus is a useful strategic case. Chinese authorities blocked the transaction in April 2026, and Manus announced a return to independent operations in September. The episode supports a narrow conclusion: states can treat agent-platform companies as strategic technology. It does not establish that every agent company will receive the same treatment.
Sources
- Meta, Llama.
- Reuters, Blocking of Meta’s AI startup buy raises risk for cross-border China tech deals, 28 April 2026.
- Manus, Manus Resumes Independent Operations, 1 September 2026.