On Monday, Microsoft and the French startup Mistral AI announced a partnership in artificial intelligence. This partnership may reduce Microsoft’s dependency on ChatGPT creator OpenAI for the next generation of chatbots and other generative AI products.
Less than a year has passed since Mistral AI first appeared, but Microsoft on Monday referred to it as a “innovator and trailblazer” who is leading the charge in creating AI systems that are more effective and affordable.
The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed by Microsoft or Mistral, however Microsoft stated that a small investment in the Paris-based business is involved. This implies that it is significantly less than Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, a partnership that has lasted for years and drawn the attention of antitrust authorities in both the US and Europe.
When Mistral’s own chatbot, Le Chat, was made accessible to the public on Monday, it was reportedly met with such overwhelming enthusiasm that a company executive had to declare it was temporarily unavailable for a portion of the day.
The business also unveiled Mistral Large, its newest large language model, which will be accessible on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform and is said to be on par with rivals like OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic’s Claude 2, and Google’s Gemini Pro. Mistral has previously declared that it is collaborating with other major cloud service providers, such as Google and Amazon.
Just months after its founding last spring, Mistral made a big impression when it attracted significant investor backing, which led to a multibillion-dollar value. Three former Google and Meta researchers from France founded it: Timothee Lacroix, chief technology officer, chief scientist Guillaume Lample, and CEO Arthur Mensch.
It has promoted a “open-source” approach to AI development, which, in contrast to businesses like OpenAI that jealously defend them, entails publicly sharing essential components of some AI systems. However, the company’s website states that the new flagship model, Mistral Large, will not be available. On Monday, Mistral did not reply to calls for comment.
Mistral resisted attempts to place limitations on the foundation models that drive generative AI systems when the European Union was working on the final draft of the Artificial Intelligence Act, a comprehensive set of AI laws, last autumn. Mensch said on social media that creative entrants would be deterred by the EU’s plans for a two-tier structure.
