French AI firm Mistral has released Magistral, a reasoning model touted as the first of its kind in Europe. This launch signifies a significant step in the continent’s AI development, positioning Mistral as a potential competitor to industry giants like OpenAI and Google. Magistral is designed to handle complex problems through a step-by-step approach, mirroring human thought processes. The model comes in two versions: Magistral Small, available open-source, and Magistral Medium, aimed at business applications, accessible through Mistral’s Le Chat platform and partners like Amazon SageMaker. While benchmarks indicate Magistral may lag behind some competitors in certain areas, it is positioned for enterprise use in sectors requiring traceable decision-making, such as law and finance. Mistral’s open-source strategy for the Small version is designed to foster community engagement, building upon the success of its earlier models.
