On August 24, 2023, Meta launched Code Llama an AI tool for coding. Code Llama is a large language model (LLM) from Meta AI that is designed to help developers write code faster and more efficiently. It is able to produce code, translate languages, compose different kinds of creative stuff, and provide you with helpful answers since it was trained on a sizable dataset of both code and natural language.
According to Meta, Code Llama is an AI model built on top of Llama 2, fine-tuned for generating and discussing code. It’s free for research and commercial use.
Code Llama can be used to:
- Generate code from natural language descriptions.
- Complete unfinished code. For example, if you have a function that is partially written, Code Llama can suggest the missing lines of code.
- Debug code. Code Llama can help you identify and fix errors in your code.
- Translate code from one language to another. For example, you could say “Translate this Python code to Java” and Code Llama would translate the code into Java.
- Write different kinds of creative content, such as poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, emails, letters, etc.
Here are some of the benefits of using Code Llama:
- Making coding faster and more efficient
- Enhancing coding skills
- Easier to debug code
- Translating code between languages
- Creating various types of creative content.
Today we’re releasing Code Llama, a large language model built on top of Llama 2, fine-tuned for coding & state-of-the-art for publicly available coding tools.
Keeping with our open approach, Code Llama is publicly-available now for both research & commercial use.
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— AI at Meta (@AIatMeta) August 24, 2023
Meta said the latest release of Code Llama includes three sizes: 7B, 13B, and 34B, each packed with 500B tokens of code and code-related data to address different serving and latency requirements.
The 7B and 13B models come with a fill-in-the-middle (FIM) feature, making them perfect for code completion tasks.
The 7B model is perfect for single GPU serving, while the 34B model offers top-notch results and coding assistance.
For lightning-fast tasks that require low latency, the 7B and 13B models are your go-to, Meta Claimed.
Code Llama supports all the popular programming languages like Python, C++, Java, PHP, Typescript (Javascript), C#, Bash, and more, Meta said. Furthermore, Meta also working on fine-tuning the other two variations of Code Llama: Code Llama – Python and Code Llama – Instruct.
Code Llama – Instruct is an instruction tuning that trains the model to better understand natural language instructions by feeding it input and expected output.
This improves its ability to understand what people expect from their prompts. Meta recommends using Code Llama – Instruct variants for code generation. Whereas, Code Llama – Python is specific to a language variant of Code Llama.
Meta said programmers are already using LLMs to help with plenty of tasks. The objective is to improve developer processes so that developers can focus on the jobs that are most important to people rather than the repetitive ones.
There are several tools available in the market that generate codes, and give suggestions based on the prompt or instruction you entered. OpenAI’s ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4, GitHub copilot, and tech giant Google are also in the race. So, competition is quite high for Meta to stay in the mainstream.
But, Meta’s Code Llama is designed to support software engineers in all sectors – including research, industry, open source projects, NGOs, and businesses that is what makes it unique.
