Mistral releases regional model focused on Arabic language and culture
The next border for large language models (LLMS), one of the most important technologies that support the boom in generative AI tools, can be geographical. AI Startup based in Paris on Monday, Mistral -That fights to compete with the US-based anthropic and OpenAi-Belt a model that is a bit different than the usual LLM.
The new adapted model with the name Mistral Saba is designed to tackle a specific geography: Arabic speaking countries. The goal for Mistral Saba is to excel in Arabic interactions.
Mistral Saba is a relatively small model with 24 billion parameters. In memory, fewer parameters generally lead to better performance with lower latency. But more parameters usually means smarter answers, even if it is not a linear correlation.
Mistral Saba is in size comparable to Mistral Small 3The small goals of the general goal. But according to Mistral’s own tests, Mistral Saba performs much better than Mistral Small 3 in dealing with Arabic content.
As an interesting side effect, due to cultural cross-pollination between the Middle East and South Asia, SABA also works well with languages in Indian Origin, per Mistral-especially South Indian origin languages, such as Tamil and Malayalam.
The new model is an interesting strategic move for the French AI giant, which shows an elevated focus on the East. Mistral said that the model will help to get a grip from customers in the region.
As a ready-made model, Mistral Saba can be used for conversation support or generating content in Arabic that sounds more natural and relevant. It can also be used as a basis for some refined models for internal use cases, the company said.
Last week Mistral used the AI Action Summit to show that it is getting serious about business. Although the company has already raised large amounts of money from international investors, many of its foreign financiers are located in the US – investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Salesforce Ventures.
Due to the changing geopolitical landscape, Mistral may be able to welcome in the upcoming financing round. It would be a way to raise more money to remain relevant in the AI race at a technical level, while positioning himself as the international alternative to the US and Chinese AI companies. The newest model from Mistral, SABA, could therefore contribute to that possible fundraising.
Mistral Saba is accessible via the API of Mistral. It can also be used, which can be a strong sales argument for companies that work in sensitive industries, such as energy, finances or health care.
Because of the European roots of the company, since the release of the original Open-Weight Mistral 7B model, it has often repeated that the multi-language support takes seriously. The release of SABA is a continuation of that positioning. And Mistral said it will focus on other regional languages on the road.
