♟️Mistral AI Makes Its Move

Today we will discuss:

• Sponsored: PostHog—helping engineers and founders build better products with insights, lessons, and strategies

• Mistral’s Small 3.1—An efficient, open-source alternative to GPT-4

• Don’t miss this week’s Workflow Wednesday—AI and creativity unlocked with Sudowrite.com, Suno.com, and Descript.com; now available at only $20/month! 

• ChatGPT connectors—Bringing Slack and Google Drive into the AI workspace

• In other AI news today— Elon Musk’s xAI acquires Hotshot, a generative AI video startup; Roblox releases "Cube," an open-source AI model for 3D object creation; China’s Sora-like Vidu secures a Hollywood deal to produce a GenAI anime series; and Zoom’s AI Companion will soon help schedule meetings

• Saved the best for last—9 must-try AI tools

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Mistral’s new AI model challenges GPT-4 with efficient, open-source design

Key Points 

• Mistral Small 3.1 delivers GPT-4-level performance with just 24 billion parameters, focusing on efficiency over sheer scale.

• Unlike proprietary models, Mistral Small 3.1 is open-source under Apache 2.0, allowing unrestricted use and modification.

• As AI competition heats up, Mistral positions itself as a European alternative to dominant US and Chinese players.

✨News - French AI startup Mistral AI has introduced Mistral Small 3.1, an open-source model the company says outperforms similar offerings from Google and OpenAI. The release adds to the growing competition in an AI market still dominated by US tech giants.

👨‍💻Here's the lowdown - Mistral Small 3.1 is a compact yet powerful multimodal model that processes both text and images. With just 24 billion parameters, it delivers performance on par with much larger proprietary models like GPT-4.

The model supports longer context windows (up to 128,000 tokens) and processes information at 150 tokens per second, making it well-suited for tasks that require speed and efficiency. Instead of relying on ever-larger architectures, Mistral has focused on algorithmic improvements and training optimizations to push the limits of what smaller models can achieve.

This efficiency-first approach stands out in an industry where increasing model size has often been the default path. As concerns around energy consumption and sustainability grow, Mistral’s strategy could prove to be a competitive advantage.

🧐How this one’s different - Unlike larger AI companies that tightly control access to their most advanced models, Mistral has released Small 3.1 under the Apache 2.0 license—a widely used open-source license that allows anyone to use, modify, and distribute the model with minimal restrictions. This approach highlights a growing divide in the industry between proprietary AI systems and open alternatives.

🌎Where this fits in the AI arms race - Mistral’s latest release comes at a time when Europe is working to strengthen its AI industry against dominant players in the US and China. With global AI competition intensifying, a European alternative like Mistral could gain traction, especially among markets looking for options outside of US and Chinese tech.

Read the full story here.

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New ChatGPT connectors link Slack and Google Drive for smarter workplace AI

Key Points 

• ChatGPT Connectors let businesses sync Slack and Google Drive, allowing the AI to answer questions using internal data.

• The feature is powered by a specialized version of GPT-4o and respects existing file permissions, ensuring users can’t access unauthorized information.

• OpenAI plans to expand ChatGPT Connectors to Microsoft SharePoint and Box, making it a broader workplace AI tool.

🚀News - OpenAI will soon begin testing a way for business customers to connect apps like Slack and Google Drive to ChatGPT. 

According to an internal document, the company is rolling out a beta feature called ChatGPT Connectors for ChatGPT Team subscribers. This will allow users to link their workspace Google Drive and Slack accounts to ChatGPT, enabling the AI to answer questions using information from files, presentations, spreadsheets, and Slack conversations.

🤓What to expect - The feature is powered by a specialized version of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model that can refine its responses based on a company’s internal knowledge. Once connected, all users in a participating ChatGPT Team workspace will be able to access the tool through OpenAI’s ChatGPT apps.

To make this possible, OpenAI syncs an encrypted copy of company files and Slack conversations to its servers, creating a searchable index. However, there are limitations—ChatGPT Connector can’t process images in documents, only “reads” data in Sheets and Excel, and doesn’t retrieve Slack DMs or messages from Slack bots.

🤔How safe is it? OpenAI highlights that Slack and Google Drive permissions will be fully respected and continuously updated. Employees won’t be able to access anything they wouldn’t normally have permission to see, and admins will have control over which Slack channels and Drive files are synced. That said, OpenAI notes that responses may vary depending on what each user has access to.

🤹‍♂️What’s more? OpenAI plans to extend ChatGPT Connectors to other platforms like Microsoft SharePoint and Box, broadening its reach across enterprise ecosystems.

🎯What’s the endgame? ChatGPT Connectors is OpenAI’s latest push to make ChatGPT an essential workplace tool. While some businesses remain hesitant to let AI access sensitive data, this integration could change minds—potentially competing with enterprise search platforms like Glean.

Read the full story here.