WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - U.S. government agencies

will be able to use Meta Platforms' ( META ) artificial

intelligence system Llama, a senior administration official

said, as the Trump administration pushes to integrate commercial

AI tools into government operations.

The General Services Administration, the government's

purchasing arm, will add Llama to its list of approved AI tools

for federal agencies, said Josh Gruenbaum, the GSA's procurement

lead, in an interview ahead of announcing the initiative.

Agencies will then be able to experiment with Llama, a free

tool, with GSA's assurance that it meets the government's

security and legal standards.

Llama is a large language model capable of processing data,

including text, video, images and audio.

GSA has also signed off in recent months on AI tools from

Meta's competitors, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft ( MSFT ),

Google, Anthropic and Open AI. The companies agreed to sell

their paid products at steep discounts and meet the government's

security requirements, GSA has said.

"It's not about currying favor," Gruenbaum said when asked

whether tech executives are giving the government discounts to

get President Donald Trump's approval. "It's about that

recognition of how do we all lock in arms and make this country

the best country it could possibly be."

Federal agencies will be able to deploy the tool to speed up

contract review or more quickly solve information technology

hiccups, among other tasks, he said.