Model Focus: Llama3.1 - Fast but Unreliable
Reading time: approx. 6 min
Llama3.1:8b from Meta is one of the most well-known and widely used local models. In our tests, it was noticeably faster than competitors, which is a major advantage. But this speed comes at a price: the model proved to be unreliable in several key categories, especially in pedagogy and reasoning, where it often "hallucinated" or made up answers.
What You Will Learn
- What strengths and weaknesses Llama3.1 has.
- In which situations the speed can compensate for the shortcomings.
- Why you must be extra source-critical with this model.
The Basics: Llama3.1 in Brief
- Model: Llama3.1:8b
- Developer: Meta
- Strengths: Very fast, good at factual knowledge, and has a basic understanding of ethics.
- Weaknesses: Poor at pedagogy, tends to hallucinate concepts, and has linguistic shortcomings.
- Ollama command:
ollama run llama3.1:8b
Results from the Benchmark
Llama3.1 had uneven performance with high peaks and deep valleys.
- Factual Knowledge: Received top rating (5/5) for a correct and direct answer about compulsory elementary school.
- Ethics & Values: Gave an answer with good structure but was considered superficial and lacking in-depth analysis (4/5).
- Code & Technology: Produced working code, but the explanation contained hallucinated or mistranslated terms like "stepp" and "jama_tal" (4/5).
- Reasoning: The explanation of the moon's phases was partially correct but contained made-up concepts like "half-moon painting" (3/5).
- Linguistic Quality: The structure was good but the text suffered from linguistic errors like "sovning" (3/5).
- Pedagogy: Failed dramatically at explaining fractions and confused numerator and denominator (2/5).
Practical Application for Staff
Given the model's profile, Llama3.1 should be used with caution and for specific purposes.
- Quick Fact Lookups: If you need a quick answer to a concrete factual question, Llama3.1 is often fast and correct. But always verify the answer.
- First Drafts and Idea Generation: The speed makes it good for quickly getting down a first draft of a text or a list of ideas. However, expect that you will need to edit and fact-check the result carefully.
- Avoid for Pedagogical Explanations: Do not use this model to get help explaining complex subjects. There is a high risk that the explanation will be incorrect and confusing.
Conclusion
Llama3.1 is like a fast but careless assistant. It is useful for simple, fact-based tasks where speed is crucial, but it requires constant supervision and source criticism from you as the user. For more complex or pedagogical tasks, Gemma3 and Qwen3 are significantly safer choices.
Next Steps
We continue our journey downward in quality and reliability. The next model we will look at is DeepSeek, a model that struggles with both language and facts.