<\/p>\n
One pressing question at the artificial-intelligence (AI) summit in Paris this week was this: is Mistral AI\u2019s assistant a cat, or a chat? Called Le Chat and developed by a French startup as a competitor to ChatGPT, it launched as a smartphone app on February 6th. To the English speaker, Le Chat looks like a French twist on AI chat, which it conducts in English (and other languages). Yet at the jamboree President Emmanuel Macron plugged it using a soft \u201csh\u201d, rendering Le Chat distinctly feline. Arthur Mensch, Mistral\u2019s 32-year-old boss, says his baby is indeed four-legged. Look carefully at the icon in the shape of the letter M, he says: it is also a cat\u2019s face.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Days after it launched, Le Chat became the most-downloaded iOS app in France. Powered by chips from Cerebras, an American competitor to Nvidia, it is much faster to use than other AI assistants, including ChatGPT. Like China\u2019s DeepSeek, it uses open-source models; but unlike the Chinese AI assistant, Le Chat does not raise national-security questions. France\u2019s defence ministry, as well as Helsing, a German startup focused on intelligent strike drones, have signed deals with Mistral. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like Le Chat anywhere else in Europe,\u201d says Verity Harding, a British AI specialist. \u201cWhen you download it,\u201d declared Mr Macron, \u201cyou are helping a European champion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
As ever, trying to build champions was a core message in Paris, though one that was marred by a spat with J.D. Vance, America\u2019s vice-president, over regulation. The summiteers promised technology that would be \u201csafe, secure and trustworthy\u201d; he accused world leaders of wanting to \u201cstrangle\u201d AI.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
All the same, France unveiled \u20ac109bn ($113bn) in private, mostly foreign, AI investment over the coming years, much of it to go on data centres that can make use of the country\u2019s low-carbon nuclear electricity. This boost to France\u2019s AI sector well exceeds the \u00a339bn ($49bn) that Britain says it will spend on AI. For all his political woes, Mr Macron was strikingly chirpy as he cajoled foreign tech bosses and leaders over foie gras and champagne at the Elys\u00e9e Palace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Le Chat has a long way to go. It is little known, even in Europe. Mistral is a dwarf among American tech giants. But in Paris it got the AI world talking. Ask Le Chat to explain its name wittily and it shoots back: \u201ca conversation starter and a purr-fect marketing coup\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n