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Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

mistral.ai

31–40 of 166 posts

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#31

Interesting. Europe is really putting up a fight for once. I'm into it.

Expected this comment. Mistral has been consistently last place, or at least last place among ChatGPT, Claude, Llama, and Gemini/Gemma. I know this because I had to use a permissive license for a side project and I was tortured by how miserably bad Mistral was, and how much better every other LLM was. Need the best? ChatGPT Need local stuff? Llama(maybe Gemma) Need to do barely legal things that break most company's…

> Need local stuff? Llama(maybe Gemma)

You probably want to replace Llama with Qwen in there. And Gemma is not even close.

> Mistral has been consistently last place, or at least last place among ChatGPT, Claude, Llama, and Gemini/Gemma.

Mistral held for a long time the position of "workhorse open-weights base model" and nothing precludes them from taking it again with some smart positioning.

They might not currently be leading a category, but as an outside observer I could see them (like Cohere) actively trying to find innovative business models to survive, reach PMF and keep the dream going, and I find that very laudable. I expect them to experiment a lot during this phase, and that probably means not doubling down on any particular niche until they find a strong signal.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#32

I think this is a game changer, because data privacy is a legitimate concern for many enterprise users. Btw, you can also run Mistral locally within the Docker model runner on a Mac.

I think many in this thread are underestimating the desire of VPs and CTOs to just offload the risk somewhere else. Quite a lot of companies handling sensitive data are already using various services in the cloud and it hasn't been a problem before - even in Europe with its GDPR laws. Just sign an NDA or whatever with OpenAI/Google/etc. and if any data gets leaked they are on the hook.

Good luck ever winning that one. How are you going to prove out a data leak with an AI model without deploying excessive amounts of legal spend?

You might be talking about small tech companies that have no other options.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#33
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also kind of don't understand how it seems everyone is using AI for coding. I haven't had a client yet which would have approved any external AI usage. So I basically use them as search engines on steroids, but code can't go directly in or out.

You might be able to get your clients to sign something to allow usage, but if you don't, as you say, it doesn't seem wise to vibe code for them. For two reasons: 1. A typical contract transfers the rights to the work. The ownership of AI generated code is legally a wee bit disputed. If you modify and refactor generated code heavily it's probably fine, but if you just accept AI generated code en masse, making your cl…

Yes these are indeed the points. I don't really care too much, it would make me a bit more efficient but I'm billing by the hour anyway so I'm completely fine playing by the book.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#35
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also kind of don't understand how it seems everyone is using AI for coding. I haven't had a client yet which would have approved any external AI usage. So I basically use them as search engines on steroids, but code can't go directly in or out.

How is it different from the cloud? Plenty startups store their code on github, run prod on aws, and keep all communications on gmail anyway. What's so different about LLMs?

I think it's a combination of a fundamental distrust of the model makers and a history of them training on user data with and without consent.

The main players all allow some form of zero data retention but I'm sure the more cautious CISO/CIOs flat out don't trust it.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#36
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be able to get your clients to sign something to allow usage, but if you don't, as you say, it doesn't seem wise to vibe code for them. For two reasons: 1. A typical contract transfers the rights to the work. The ownership of AI generated code is legally a wee bit disputed. If you modify and refactor generated code heavily it's probably fine, but if you just accept AI generated code en masse, making your cl…

Yes these are indeed the points. I don't really care too much, it would make me a bit more efficient but I'm billing by the hour anyway so I'm completely fine playing by the book.

Not sure I can agree with the "I'm billing by the hour" part.

I mean sure, but I think of my little agency providing value, for a price. Clients have budgets, they have limited benefits from any software they build, and in order to be competitive against other agencies or their internal teams, overall, I feel we need to provide a good bang for buck.

But since it's not all that much about typing in code, and since even that activity isn't all that sped up by LLMs, not if quality and stability matters, I would still agree that it's completely fine.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#37

Interesting. Europe is really putting up a fight for once. I'm into it.

Expected this comment. Mistral has been consistently last place, or at least last place among ChatGPT, Claude, Llama, and Gemini/Gemma. I know this because I had to use a permissive license for a side project and I was tortured by how miserably bad Mistral was, and how much better every other LLM was. Need the best? ChatGPT Need local stuff? Llama(maybe Gemma) Need to do barely legal things that break most company's…

Whats your point here? There is a place for a European LLM, be it “patriotism” or data safety. And dont tell me the Chinese are not “patriotic” about their stuff. Everyone has a different approach. If Mistral fits the market, they will be successful.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#38
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also kind of don't understand how it seems everyone is using AI for coding. I haven't had a client yet which would have approved any external AI usage. So I basically use them as search engines on steroids, but code can't go directly in or out.

You might be able to get your clients to sign something to allow usage, but if you don't, as you say, it doesn't seem wise to vibe code for them. For two reasons: 1. A typical contract transfers the rights to the work. The ownership of AI generated code is legally a wee bit disputed. If you modify and refactor generated code heavily it's probably fine, but if you just accept AI generated code en masse, making your cl…

What about 10 years ago when we all copied code from SO? Did we worry about copyright then? Maybe we did and I don’t recall.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#39
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be able to get your clients to sign something to allow usage, but if you don't, as you say, it doesn't seem wise to vibe code for them. For two reasons: 1. A typical contract transfers the rights to the work. The ownership of AI generated code is legally a wee bit disputed. If you modify and refactor generated code heavily it's probably fine, but if you just accept AI generated code en masse, making your cl…

What about 10 years ago when we all copied code from SO? Did we worry about copyright then? Maybe we did and I don’t recall.

It's roughly the same, legally, and I was well aware of that.

Legally speaking, you also want to be careful about your dependencies and their licenses, a company that's afraid to get sued usually goes to quite some lengths to ensure they play this stuff safe. A lot of smaller companies and startups don't know or don't care.

From a professional ethics perspective, personally, I don't want to put my clients in that position unless they consciously decide they want that. They hire professionals not just to get work done they fully understand, but to a large part to have someone who tells them what they don't know.

Re: Mistral ships Le Chat – enterprise AI assistant that can run on prem

#40

Mistral models though are not interesting as models. Context handling is weak, language is dry, coding mediocre; not sure why would anyone chose it over Chinese (Qwen, GLM, Deepseek) or American models (Gemma, Command A, Llama).

Data privacy is a thing - in Europe.
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