Generative AI, especiallyLarge Language Models (LLMs),are changing how we create content, find information, and solve problems. It creates text, content, and commands that are as good as what humans can produce, all from simple instructions we give it. Generative AI is set to transform how we interact with machines and each other.
A standout company making big moves to advancegenerative AIis Mistral. This French AI startup made headlines forsecuring massive funding in its initial funding round, and for good reason. In this article, we dive into what Mistral is all about, the AI technology it’s working on, and its contributions to the field.
What are large language models?
Large language models (LLMs) are the basis for AI chatbots and much more. Here’s what’s going on behind the scenes
Mistral: the birth of a new AI powerhouse in Paris
Mistral AI is a Paris-based startup that makes “efficient, helpful, and trustworthy AI models through ground-breaking innovations.” It aims to create “open-weight” models that help everyday users compete with proprietary solutions from companies like Google and OpenAI. It feels its approach helps users create AI models they can customize with the appropriate safeguards for the task they’re intended for.
The company was founded inApril 2023by Arthur Mensch as the CEO, Timothée Lacroix handling the tech side as the CTO, and Guillaume Lample, the brains behind science, as the chief science officer. Itsfirst model, Mistral 7B, was releasedfor free in September 2023.
Mistral is backed by some heavy hitters. The French investment bankBpifranceand former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have a stake in the start up. It also caught investors attention when it rasied$113 million in its first round of funding. This move got people talking about an “AI bubble,” especially since Mistral pulled this off without having a product or customers.
But Mistral didn’t sit on this funding. It was quick to show what it could do. Mistral unveiled its Mistral 7B language processing model inSeptember 2023. Not stopping there, it pushed further, and inDecember 2023, it introduced Mistral 8x7B. Mistral is on a fast track, turning heads and setting the pace in the AI world.
Mistral 7B and 8x7B: Two powerful open models
Mistral offers two open models, Mistral 7B and Mistral 8x7B. Both are free to use under theApache 2.0 license.
Mistral 7B
Mistral 7B, AKA Mistral-tiny. is a powerful model with 7.3 billion parts. It understands English and programming code, and it can keep track of up to 8,000 pieces of information at once. It performs better than LLaMA 2 13B on every test and challenges LLaMA 1 34B on many of them. Mistral 7B can handle code-related tasks almost as well as Code LLaMA 7B while also being great at understanding English. This dual skill set is a big win for anyone working on AI, especially for projects that need to juggle computer code and regular language. It’s an exciting tool that opens up new doors for what we can do with AI.
Mixtral 8x7B
Mixtral 8x7B, also known as Mxtral, is Mistral’s premier open model, which is a high-quality sparse mixture of experts model (SMoE) with open weights. Mistral claims this model outperforms LLaMA 2 70B or GPT 3.5 on most benchmarks. The model can achieve an MT-Bench score of 8.3 if tuned correctly and shows strong performance in code generation. It works in English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German.
Think of Mixtral as a team of people where each member has a unique talent. When Mixtral faces a challenge, it picks the best two skills out of the eight for the task. This means it can adapt and choose differently each time, making the most of a vast pool of abilities (47 billion options) using a select slice (13 billion) for efficiency and precision.
Mixtral takes chatting to a new level, making every conversation flow smoothly and sticking to the topic better. This model excels at diving into complex, nuanced discussions, with its improved common sense reasoning and world knowledge. This model isn’t only versatile. It knows five languages: French, Spanish, Italian, English, and German.
Mistral optimized models
In addition to Mistral’s open models, it also offers three optimized models to meet the needs of commercial users.
Mistral Small is an optimized version of 8x7B that that’s available for self-deployment, on cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure, or on Mistral’s la Platformme.
Mistral Large, the company’s flagship model, was released in February. Thestart-up describes its flagshipas natively fluent in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian, and can better understand grammar and cultural nuance. it also has a larger token window to better recall and understand longer documents, and can follow precise instructions-—a welcome addition for content moderators. Mistral Large is available on la Platformme and Azure.
Finally. Mistral’s Embeddings API transforms words into vectors and analyzes the relationship and distance between them. This information is used to better understand text, as well as classify and categorize documents holistically.
Mistral AI is opening new frontiers across sectors
Mistral AI’s large language models are at the forefront of innovation, offering solutions for multiple industries. With its flexibility and open source design, Mistral AI invites users to customize its capabilities to fit their specific use cases. Here are some potential applications of Mistral AI.
Content creation with Mistral AI’s generative capabilities
You can build powerful chatbots that respond to customer queries in a human-like manner with Mistral AI’s models. Imagine an online retail store chatbot that can answer FAQs about products and policies and provide personalized shopping advice, similar to a knowledgeable salesperson in a physical store. This bot can also guide customers through their purchasing journey, offering recommendations based on their preferences and past purchases.
Mistral AI, bridging languages for seamless international business
Mistral AI is like having a multilingual expert at hand, making it easy to break down language barriers. It becomes effortless to translate reviews, product descriptions, and instructions. This capability makes Mistral AI a powerful tool in global communication strategies for businesses and startups.
The co-developer speeding up bug fixes and code optimization
The platform’s natural coding abilities allow it to assist in software development processes. Imagine a software development team working on a complex project with tight deadlines. Mistral AI could help by generating code snippets, suggesting bug fixes, and optimizing existing code, acting as an invaluable co-developer that speeds up the development process.
Automation and innovation with Mistral AI’s analytical power
Mistral AI offers a competitive edge to businesses through its exceptional understanding of natural language, making it good at deciphering complex datasets. This analysis can help discover new trends and opportunities that might go unnoticed. Mistral AI optimizes business operations by automating workflows and decision-making. It can handle the repetitive tasks and free up human resources for more strategic activities.
The roadmap for AI
Artificial Intelligence technologieslike Mistral could become everyday helpers, integrated intosmart home devicesto make our lives easier. Even with their advanced features, these systems can only partially grasp human context or make ethical decisions the way people do.
As a result, it’s imperative to be aware of how technologies like Mistral might be misused or underperformed. With a focus on responsible development, AI can further our capabilities and reflect our values, allowing us to build a future in which AI improves human lives instead of complicating them.
