On the 6th (local time), French startup Mistral AI, which created the European version of "ChatGPT," launched the mobile application (app) for its chatbot "Le Chat." Le Chat is a chatbot built on Mistral Large, a large language model (LLM) with performance close to OpenAI's GPT-4.
Mistral noted in a press release that "Le Chat is a comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that helps with your daily life and work," adding that "Le Chat is now available on both iOS and Android starting today." Mistral boasted that the latest version of Le Chat can handle various AI-based tasks, including providing up-to-date news, scheduling and managing appointments, tracking projects and progress, and uploading and summarizing documents.
Mistral explained that Le Chat operates based on the fastest and lowest-latency Mistral AI model and a high-speed inference engine, allowing it to think and respond faster and more logically than other chatbots. This so-called "flash response" feature can respond with up to 1,000 words per second, according to Mistral. This feature is currently offered to all users in a preview version.
Mistral also explained that Le Chat aggregates the latest information from web searches, reliable media, social media, and various other sources to capture subtle differences and provide evidence-based answers. Moreover, it is equipped with industry-leading vision and optical character recognition (OCR) models for image and document understanding, enabling it to accurately recognize complex documents such as PDFs, Excel files, and log files, as well as analyze tricky or hard-to-decipher images.
Aiming for "AI democratization," Mistral offers most features of Le Chat for free. For customers seeking deeper usage, paid versions are also available at €14.99 (Pro, approximately 22,000 won) and €24.99 (Team, approximately 37,000 won). Arthur Menchu, co-founder of Mistral, emphasized in an interview with the daily Le Figaro that "this version is cheaper than competitors" and that "it offers more capacity, faster speed, and an improved experience compared to the free version."
Mistral's announcement came in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's $500 billion (approximately 725 trillion won) AI project "Stargate" announcement and China's DeepSeek sending shockwaves around the world.
Menchu specifically referred to the recently rising DeepSeek in an interview with Le Figaro, saying, "They are the company we've been waiting for," noting, "I know them well because they were founded around the same time as us in 2023. They have benefited from the technology we provided through open-source." He added, "We can train models more efficiently than DeepSeek," and expressed his resolve to demonstrate technological advancements that surpass those of DeepSeek in the future.
Mistral's announcement is said to have been timed ahead of the AI summit scheduled for the 10th to 11th in Paris. Menchu expressed, "We want to increase accessibility and popularity of AI. Now is a good time for the general public to recognize the revolution AI will bring," adding that, "European players are important, and we want to show that they are providing cutting-edge technology."