Meta's LLaMA, short for Large Language Model Meta AI, will be available under non-commercial license to researchers and entities affiliated with government, civil society, and academia, it said in a blog.
The company will make available the underlying code for users to tweak the model and use it for research-related use cases.
The model, which Meta said requires "far less" computing power, is trained on 20 languages with a focus on those with Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.
"Meta's announcement today appears to be a step in testing their generative AI capabilities so they can implement them into their products in the future," said Gil Luria, senior software analyst at D.A. Davidson.
"Generative AI is a new application of AI that Meta has less experience with, but is clearly important for the future of their business."
Meta last May released large language model OPT-175B, also aimed at researchers, which formed the basis of a new iteration of its chatbot BlenderBot.
It later launched a model called Galactica, which it said could write scientific articles and solve math problems, but its demo was later pulled down because it repeatedly generated authoritative-sounding content.
AI has emerged as a bright spot for investments in the tech industry, whose slowing growth has led to widespread layoffs and a cutback on experimental bets. Microsoft Corp., Baidu and Alphabet's Google, meanwhile, are incorporating their respective advanced AI language engines into more mass products like search.