Meta Platforms has introduced its latest generation of AI models: the Llama 4 family. With this release, the technology group is setting a significant milestone in the field of artificial intelligence and strategically positioning itself in an increasingly competitive AI market – and doing so with remarkable restraint compared to its competitors.
The new Llama family: Scout, Maverick and Behemoth
The Llama 4 family consists of three main models, two of which are currently available:
Scout (Llama 4-S)
- Compact model with 8 billion parameters
- Can run on a single Nvidia H100 GPU
- Context window of an impressive 10 million tokens
- According to Meta, it outperforms Google's Gemma 3 and Mistral 3.1 in various benchmarks
- Ideal for chatbots, edge computing and mobile applications
Maverick (Llama 4-M)
- 34 billion parameters with MoE architecture
- Performance comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4o and Google's Gemini 2.0 Flash
- Results reportedly comparable to DeepSeek-V3 in coding and reasoning tasks, despite less than half the active parameters
- Designed for more complex logical and creative tasks
- Already integrated into meta-platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger
Behemoth (Llama 4-B)
- Currently in development (release planned for end of 2025)
- 288 billion active parameters out of a total of 2 trillion
- According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it will be “one of the smartest large language models in the world and our most powerful model”
- Focused on demanding business and scientific applications
Technological innovations: multimodality and MoE architecture
What makes Llama 4 particularly special are two key innovations:
Native multimodal support with early fusion
Early Fusion technology enables models to treat text, images, and video frames as a single sequence of tokens. This enables AI to seamlessly understand and generate different media formats—a critical capability for modern AI applications. It enables companies to develop AI assistants that process complete reports with text, graphics, and video clips and provide integrated summaries or responses.
Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture
The MoE architecture divides the model into specialized components, each focused on specific areas such as physics, poetry, biology, or programming. For a given task, only the most relevant expert modules are activated, increasing efficiency and reducing training and inference costs. This architecture allows Llama 4 to expand its capacity without proportionally increasing costs—a significant advantage for enterprise implementations.
Impressive language support and global reach
A notable aspect of Llama 4 is its support for 200 languages, including over 100 with more than a billion tokens. Overall, 10 times more multilingual tokens were used than in Llama 3. This makes the models more accessible and useful for a global user base.
Strategic importance for Meta
The release of Llama 4 comes at a critical time for Meta, as the company plans to spend up to $65 billion this year improving its AI infrastructure to meet investor demands for returns.
Zuckerberg emphasized the company's ambitious AI goals in an Instagram video: "Our goal is to build the world's leading AI, open source it, and make it universally accessible... I've said for some time that open source AI will lead the way, and with Llama 4, we're starting to see that happen."
The strength of Meta's approach lies in the consistent integration of AI technology into existing services with billions of users. Unlike competitors who primarily focus on premium users and business customers, Meta potentially reaches a significantly larger user base in the consumer sector.
Challenges and limitations
Despite the impressive progress, Meta and Llama 4 face certain challenges:
- The Information reported that Meta had to postpone the release after it was discovered that Llama 4 did not meet technical expectations in reasoning and mathematical skills during the development phase.
- There are concerns that Llama 4 may not perform as well as OpenAI models in simulating human-like voice interactions
- The licensing terms could be problematic: individuals and companies based in the EU are currently not allowed to use or distribute these models, presumably due to regulatory requirements under the region's AI and data protection legislation
- Similar to previous Llama versions, companies with more than 700 million monthly active users must apply for a special license from Meta
Exclusively at AI Magick: Try Llama 4
As a provider of innovative AI solutions, AI Magick offers you the opportunity to experience the Llama 4 models in practice:
- Direct access to the Llama 4 Scout
- No registration required
- Practical experience with leading AI technology
Visit this link to test Llama 4 as a chatbot: AI Magick Llama 4 Chatbot
The future of Llama
Meta emphasizes that this is just the beginning for the Llama 4 family. The company continues to research and develop both models and products and will provide further insights into its vision at LlamaCon on April 29.
With Llama 4, Meta is taking an important step toward its vision of establishing AI technology as a standard tool in everyday life. The combination of multimodal capabilities, efficient architecture, and broad language support positions Llama 4 as a serious competitor in the rapidly growing AI market.
At AI Magick, we are working to harness this technology for practical applications and look forward to exploring the possibilities of Llama 4 with you.
Your feedback is important
We invite you to test Llama 4 on our platform and share your experience with us. Your feedback helps us continuously improve our offering and tailor it to your needs.