However, while the model is free to use, it is not open source. It was developed privately, using private funds, and the datasets and weights are also private. Mistral's business model appears to be offering the free model for use, but charging for their commercial product, which will provide access to both weights and code sources. The company is also working on hosted solutions and dedicated deployment for enterprises.
Key takeaways:
- Mistral, a French AI startup, has released its first language model, Mistral 7B, which is free to use without restrictions and is claimed to outperform others of its size.
- The model is available for download and the company has started a GitHub repository and Discord channel for collaboration and troubleshooting.
- Mistral 7B was released under the Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used by anyone as long as they attribute it, and is capable of running it locally or can pay for cloud resources.
- While the model is free to use, Mistral's business model appears to be based on a paid product that offers more in-depth access, including both weights and code sources, and the company is working on hosted solutions and dedicated deployment for enterprises.