Mistral AI's Le Chat to Use AFP's News in Six Languages in First-Ever Deal

Jan 16, 2025, 06:39 AM

French artificial intelligence company Mistral AI has entered into a multi-year agreement with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to enhance the capabilities of its chatbot, Le Chat. Under the deal, Le Chat will utilize AFP's news articles in six languages—French, English, Spanish, Arabic, German, and Portuguese—to respond to user queries. This partnership marks the first such agreement for both AFP and Mistral AI, aiming to provide users with verified and fact-based information. The collaboration is seen as a strategic move by AFP to diversify its revenue streams, particularly as it faces the end of its fact-checking contract with Meta. Mistral AI's CEO, Arthur Mensch, emphasized the importance of AFP's journalistic source for ensuring the reliability of Le Chat's responses. The agreement also allows Le Chat to access AFP's extensive text archives dating back to 1983, though it does not include access to AFP's photos, videos, or infographics. AFP provides 2,300 articles daily, contributing to a total of 38 million articles in its archives, which Mistral AI, a European competitor to American AI giants, will leverage.