Portugal launches first open-source Portuguese LLM AMALIA

Portugal's government announced the launch of AMALIA, the first open-source large language model based on European Portuguese. Developed by over 60 researchers from multiple Portuguese universities over 18 months, the project had an initial investment of 5.5 million euros and used computing infrastructure like Deucalion and MareNostrum 5.

The first phase trained a 9B-parameter model on about 4 trillion Portuguese words, now capable of understanding text, images, and sound. A 22B version with agent capabilities is planned later this year, requiring an additional 1.5 million euros. The model is a national strategic project for Portugal.