The launch of ChatGPT and the subsequent release of other models across the Atlantic had triggered a race against time on the European side. (Photo: 123RF)
French company Mistral AI, one of the two AI pioneers in Europe, announced a partnership with Microsoft and its conversational AI on Monday, less than a year after its founding.
At the same time as its new language model Mistral Large, the third to be introduced by the company, Mistral announced the existence of “Chat”, a reference to the American Open AI's predecessor ChatGPT.
The French group, valued at around $2 billion according to financial sources, boasts performance comparable to GPT-4. The difference is that it currently offers conversational AI specifically for businesses and not the general public.
The Mistral Large model will be available starting Monday to customers of Azure AI, the Microsoft platform with which Mistral announced a partnership without revealing the terms.
“This is an important milestone for us as the unmatched performance of this multilingual model continues to push the boundaries of what is possible with cutting-edge artificial intelligence,” said Arthur Mensch, co-founder of Mistral AI, in a press release.
Microsoft, in turn, welcomed the partnership with the start-up, which it described as “groundbreaking and innovative”. This “is based on a shared commitment to providing safe and reliable AI systems and products,” the American giant said.
According to the Financial Times, Microsoft has made a small investment in Mistral.
Global calling
Founded in April 2023, Mistral AI, whose three French founders come from the ranks of Meta (parent company of Facebook) and Google, has always expressed the desire to offer an alternative to the models of large American technology companies.
“We have a clear goal: to create a European champion with a global focus in artificial intelligence,” said one of its co-founders, Arthur Mensch, in a press release in December.
The launch of ChatGPT and the subsequent release of other models across the Atlantic had triggered a race against time on the European side.
“There is a pretty strong cultural dependence” on the United States when it comes to AI, Arthur Mensch pointed out in October. For example, unlike its American counterparts, Mistral AI focuses on developing open source models that can be used by everyone.
The new model presented on Monday is also configured in five languages (French, English, German, Spanish and Italian).
A “champion” France
A desire for independence promoted by politicians: While Mistral AI successfully raised 105 million euros in June 2023, Emmanuel Macron announced his desire to make France the “champion” in this field.
In mid-January, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on the EU to “double its efforts” so as not to fall behind.
France has positioned itself particularly well in the race for AI in Europe: in addition to the encouragement given by the President of the Republic to the launch of Mistral AI, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire recently highlighted his desire to see the emergence of “an AI specific to France model” and creates jobs.
In mid-February, Google opened an AI research center in Paris, and the country will host the next in-person edition of an AI security summit.
But few European companies can claim the title of serious competitors to ChatGPT and others Gemini (Google) and Copilot (Microsoft): besides Mistral AI, only the German Aleph Alpha has such ambitions.
And the desire for European sovereignty is threatened by the very large investments made by the USA. In November, despite raising €500 million, Aleph Alpha's CEO feared his company was “in existential danger” after learning that another $13 billion had been poured into OpenAI.