The next frontier for large language models (LLMs), one of the key technologies underpinning the boom in generative AI tools, might be geographical. On Monday, Paris-based AI startup Mistral — which is vying to rival the likes of U.S.-based Anthropic and OpenAI — is releasing a model that’s a bit different from its usual LLM.
Named Mistral Saba, the new custom-trained model is designed to address 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. As a reminder, fewer parameters generally leads to better performance with lower latency. But more parameters usually means smarter answers, even though it’s not a linear correlation.
Mistral Saba is comparable in size to Mistral Small 3, its general purpose small model. But, according to Mistral’s own tests, Mistral Saba performs much better than Mistral Small 3 when handling Arabic content.
As an interesting side effect, due to cultural cross-pollination between the Middle East and South Asia, Saba also works well with Indian-origin languages, per Mistral — especially South Indian-origin languages, such as Tamil and Malayalam.
The new model represents an interesting strategic move for the French AI giant, showing an increased focus on the Middle East. Mistral said it expects the model will help it gain traction among customers in the region.
As an off-the-shelf model, Mistral Saba could be used for conversational support or content generation in Arabic that sounds more natural and relevant. It can also be used as the basis for some fine-tuned models for internal use cases, the company said.
Last week, Mistral used the AI Action Summit to demonstrate that it’s getting serious about business. While the company has already raised large amounts of money from international investors, many of its foreign backers are based in the U.S. — investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Salesforce Ventures.
Due to the shifting geopolitical landscape, Mistral could potentially welcome Middle Eastern investors in its upcoming funding round. It would be a way to raise more money to remain relevant in the AI race on a technical level, while positioning itself as the international alternative to U.S. and Chinese AI companies. Mistral’s newest model, Saba, could therefore contribute to that potential fundraising effort.
Mistral Saba is accessible through Mistral’s API. It can also be deployed on-premise, which could be a strong selling point for companies working in sensitive industries, such as energy, finance or healthcare.
Due to the company’s European roots, since the release of the original open-weight Mistral 7B model it has often reiterated that it takes multi-language support seriously. Saba’s release is a continuation of that positioning. And Mistral said that it will be turning its attention to other regional languages down the road.
Romain Dillet is a Senior Reporter at TechCrunch. He has written over 3,000 articles on technology and tech startups and has established himself as an influential voice on the European tech scene. He has a deep background in startups, privacy, security, fintech, blockchain, mobile, social and media. With twelve years of experience at TechCrunch, he’s one of the familiar faces of the tech publication that obsessively covers Silicon Valley and the tech industry. In fact, his career started at TechCrunch when he was 21. Based in Paris, many people in the tech ecosystem consider him as the most knowledgeable tech journalist in town. Romain likes to spot important startups before anyone else. He was the first person to cover N26, Revolut and DigitalOcean. He has written scoops on large acquisitions from Apple, Microsoft and Snap. When he’s not writing, Romain is also a developer — he understands how the tech behind the tech works. He also has a deep historical knowledge of the computer industry for the past 50 years. He knows how to connect the dots between innovations and the effect on the fabric of our society. Romain graduated from Emlyon Business School, a leading French business school specialized in entrepreneurship. He has helped several non-profit organizations, such as StartHer, an organization that promotes education and empowerment of women in technology, and Techfugees, an organization that empowers displaced people with technology.
