EU Investigates Microsoft's Investment in French AI Startup Mistral Over Competition Concerns
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The EU is investigating Microsoft's €15M investment in French AI startup Mistral, which was timed right after Mistral released a large language model to rival ChatGPT.
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Mistral is a well-funded AI startup founded in 2023 by researchers from DeepMind and Meta, valued around €1.8B. It just released two new large language models.
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Mistral partnered with Microsoft to get Azure cloud infrastructure to train and run its models. In return, Microsoft invested in Mistral.
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EU regulators are concerned these types of AI mergers with big tech firms could consolidate too much power and hurt competition.
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The EU's upcoming AI Act will regulate risky AI models like large language models, requiring transparency around training data and implementation of safeguards.