• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

U.S. companies have finally gotten $71 billion in tariff refunds, but they’re using it to offset inflation caused by the Iran war

2

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’

3

Kevin O’Leary claimed opposition to his Utah data center was fueled by Chinese money. Now he and Fox News are being sued for defamation

1

U.S. companies have finally gotten $71 billion in tariff refunds, but they’re using it to offset inflation caused by the Iran war

2

FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’

3

Kevin O’Leary claimed opposition to his Utah data center was fueled by Chinese money. Now he and Fox News are being sued for defamation
Meta

Exclusive: Mark Zuckerberg publicly praises Meta’s Llama AI, but also uses rival GPT-4 to improve an internal AI coding tool

By
Kali Hays
Kali Hays
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kali Hays
Kali Hays
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 3, 2024, 6:52 PM ET
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on stage at his company's annual Connect developer event.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Despite Mark Zuckerberg hailing Meta’s Llama AI model as among the best in tech, his company is happy to also use a rival when needed.

Recommended Video

Meta’s internal coding tool, Metamate, incorporates OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, alongside Meta’s own Llama model, to make the tool more useful for developers and other Meta employee who use it, two people who have used the tool told Fortune. OpenAI’s model has been a part of Metamate since at least early this year. 

The people, a current and a former Meta employee who requested anonymity for fear of retribution from Meta, noted they find Metamate helpful. It appears to pull answers to coding questions or prompts from Llama or GPT-4, they said, depending on the kind of query or how an employee uses the tool.

“It’s one of the better genAI things they’ve done,” one of the people who used the tool said of Meta’s efforts in generative AI. Metamate is similar to other AI coding tools like Microsoft’s GitHub CoPilot or Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet. 

Separately, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the large philanthropic organization run by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, is also an OpenAI customer, two people familiar with that entity told Fortune. CZI is developing an “educational” genAI tool based on ChatGPT with some additional customization, or what’s often referred to as a “wrapper” of genAI tech. Earlier this year, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was named to a new AI advisory board at CZI.

A spokesman for Meta declined to comment. Representatives of CZI did not respond to emails seeking comment.

While it’s not unusual for a company deploying genAI tools for their workforce to rely on more than one model, Zuckerberg has positioned Meta as a key player in the model wars. It’s a fight most companies are waging against OpenAI, which released ChatGPT two years ago and kicked off a race to catch up in order to gain a foothold in what’s widely considered to be a new era of tech. Zuckerberg has spent the last year marketing Llama as an “open source” alternative that’s as good or better than completely closed models, like those from OpenAI and Google.

When Meta released a new version of Llama mid-year, the CEO said it was” competitive with the most advanced models and leading in some areas.” By next year, Zuckerberg declared, the Llama model will be “the most advanced in the industry.”  

Nevertheless, a tool like Metamate still needs the aid of another model like GPT-4 to respond well to every query or prompt, even if Llama is one of the world’s largest models. Its most recent version was pretrained on trillions of tokens, the individual bits of information fed into an LLM, and four times more computer code than its predecessor.

One of the sources who spoke to Fortune agreed that the current version of Metamate, originally dubbed Code Compose, is helpful in technical work at Meta, noting it’s “at least as good as an intern.” Translation: It’s good at basic coding but not for more complex engineering work.

However, a side effect of AI’s helpfulness is that top executives think they need fewer workers. “It’s part of what spurs layoffs,” the person added.

Indeed, Meta has incrementally laid off scores of workers this year after cutting more than 20,000 employees between 2022 and 2023.

Are you a Meta employee or someone with insight or a tip to share? Contact Kali Hays securely through Signal at +1-949-280-0267 or at kali.hays@fortune.com.

About the Author
By Kali Hays
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

t
PoliticsWhite House
Trump monetizing his social media account is ‘odious’ and ‘brazen corruption’ — or an attempt to revive a 70% stock price crash since election
By Bernard Condon and The Associated PressJuly 18, 2026
4 hours ago
xi
AIChina
A Chinese Pink Floyd fan is giving Claude and Chat their own DeepSeek moment — an AI model just as good and half the price
By Matt O'Brien and The Associated PressJuly 18, 2026
4 hours ago
bank
BankingBanks
Citizens Bank drops links with private prison companies, citing ‘changed commercial circumstances’
By Ken Sweet and The Associated PressJuly 18, 2026
4 hours ago
tourism
Travel & LeisureWorld Cup
‘They put 100% effort into looking after you’: Wary soccer fans stunned by a look at the real America, not the image they’ve been sold by the media
By Sarah Raza and The Associated PressJuly 18, 2026
4 hours ago
dna
LawDNA
‘My mind was just completely blown’: 2 families sue hospital after DNA proves their kids were switched at birth 38 years ago
By Mikella Schuettler, Thomas Peipert, Gene Johnson and The Associated PressJuly 18, 2026
5 hours ago
Trump, Iran and Jimmy Carter — experts think it’s ‘dawning on him’ that he should have paid closer attention to history
PoliticsDonald Trump
Trump, Iran and Jimmy Carter — experts think it’s ‘dawning on him’ that he should have paid closer attention to history
By Will Weissert and The Associated PressJuly 18, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

U.S. companies have finally gotten $71 billion in tariff refunds, but they’re using it to offset inflation caused by the Iran war
Economy
U.S. companies have finally gotten $71 billion in tariff refunds, but they’re using it to offset inflation caused by the Iran war
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 17, 2026
1 day ago
FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’
C-Suite
FedEx CEO says we are in the middle of the biggest supply chain shift he’s seen in 35 years: ‘We are the referendum’
By Fortune EditorsJuly 15, 2026
3 days ago
Kevin O’Leary claimed opposition to his Utah data center was fueled by Chinese money. Now he and Fox News are being sued for defamation
Law
Kevin O’Leary claimed opposition to his Utah data center was fueled by Chinese money. Now he and Fox News are being sued for defamation
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 17, 2026
1 day ago
Buffett says AI giants are ‘playing a game they don’t want to play’ in the AI race, reveals he was behind Berkshire’s $31 billion bet on Google
Big Tech
Buffett says AI giants are ‘playing a game they don’t want to play’ in the AI race, reveals he was behind Berkshire’s $31 billion bet on Google
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 16, 2026
2 days ago
Trump may have to choose between an endless quagmire and ceding the Strait of Hormuz to Iran
Energy
Trump may have to choose between an endless quagmire and ceding the Strait of Hormuz to Iran
By Jordan BlumJuly 18, 2026
11 hours ago
After the Supreme Court killed his first tariffs, Trump turns to a new legal workaround to impose 25% tariffs on Brazil and possibly others
Economy
After the Supreme Court killed his first tariffs, Trump turns to a new legal workaround to impose 25% tariffs on Brazil and possibly others
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 17, 2026
21 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.