Meta will allow U.S. government agencies and contractors working on national security to use its artificial intelligence models for military purposes, the company said Monday, in a shift from its policy that prohibited the use of its technology for such efforts.

Meta said that it would make its AI models, called Llama, available to federal agencies and that it was working with defense contractor as well as defense-focused tech companies including Palantir and Anduril. The Llama models are “open source,” which means the technology can be freely copied and distributed by other developers, companies and governments.

Meta’s move is an exception to its “acceptable use policy,” which forbade the use of the company’s AI software for “military, warfare, nuclear industries,” among other purposes.

In a blog post Monday, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said the company now backed “responsible and ethical uses” of the technology that supported the United States and “democratic values” in a global race for AI supremacy.

— The Associated Press