French AI startup Mistral announced a major update for Le Chat today, as the company's consumer AI chat service will compete directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Le Chat was first launched in February this year, utilizing the Mistral Small and Mistral Large models.
Le Chat comes with several new features, including web search with citations, a new canvas user interface, image and document understanding, and the ability to generate images. Best of all, Mistral offers all these new features for free.
Le Chat, along with its related upgrades, provides users with powerful language interaction capabilities, while new achievements like Pixtral Large showcase unique charm in areas such as image generation. These products aim to deliver a smarter, more efficient, and enriched user experience, holding great potential for daily communication, information retrieval, and creative inspiration.
[Le Chat] Overview
Le Chat is pronounced [/lə ʃa/] and means "cat" in French. It is Mistral AI's free generative AI work assistant. It can serve as a creative partner, learn to perform specific tasks, and act as a coding co-pilot, helping with various work tasks.
Built on an advanced technical architecture, Le Chat can understand and generate natural language, providing users with high-quality conversational interaction services. Through continuous updates and improvements, Le Chat is steadily enhancing its features and performance, becoming a strong competitor to products like ChatGPT, and forming a rich product ecosystem with other Mistral AI offerings like Pixtral Large, providing users with diverse AI services.
You can think of Le Chat as your creative partner, teach it to perform specific tasks, or use it as a programming co-pilot... Essentially, you can use it to accomplish various tasks.
Here is a comparison of Le Chat with leading chat and search assistants in today's market:
| Feature | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Le Chat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid Service | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Web search with citations | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Canvas feature for brainstorming, real-time editing, and exporting | Paid | No | Limited | Yes |
| Image generation | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Image/Document analysis | Yes | Paid | Yes | Yes |
| Task agent | Paid | No | No | Yes |
| Single platform from model to output | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
[Le Chat] Feature Highlights
The core of the new Le Chat is the new Pixtral Large multimodal model, which is much more powerful than Mistral's previous visual models. In image generation, Mistral collaborates with Black Forest Labs using their Flux model.
Similar to ChatGPT's custom GPTs and Gemini Gems, Le Chat also allows users to create their own agents for repetitive workflows. The created agents can be published and shared with others.
Natural Language Understanding and Generation: Capable of accurately understanding user inputs in natural language and generating logically clear and semantically accurate responses. Whether it's casual conversation, answering questions, or complex instructions, it can provide appropriate responses, such as answering questions in various fields of knowledge, like scientific principles or historical events.
Multidisciplinary Knowledge Base: Covers a wide range of knowledge fields, including but not limited to science, technology, culture, and arts. Users can ask questions in different areas and receive expert answers, such as checking the latest developments in a scientific study or understanding cultural characteristics of a specific historical period.
Personalized Interaction Experience: Provides personalized services based on the user's conversation history and preferences. For example, if a user frequently asks about technology-related topics, it will prioritize delivering tech news or responding in a manner that aligns with the user's communication style.
Real-time Conversation Capability: Supports real-time conversations with almost no noticeable delay, making users feel like they are interacting with a real person. Suitable for instant messaging scenarios, such as quickly retrieving information or answering urgent questions.
Smart Suggestions and Guidance: During the user's inquiry process, it can intelligently provide suggestions and guidance, helping users express their questions more accurately and improving interaction efficiency. For example, when users input vague questions, it will suggest possible refinement directions.
Conversation History Management: Allows users to view and manage conversation history, making it easy to review previous exchanges and helping maintain coherence in multi-turn conversations.
Security and Privacy Protection: Places a high priority on user data security and privacy, ensuring that users' conversation content is not leaked or misused, allowing users to use it with peace of mind.
[Le Chat] Applicable Scenarios
Mistral AI has added web search and image generation capabilities to its Le Chat AI assistant while introducing a new visual model that performs well on industry benchmarks.
Le Chat users can now access current web content through integrated web search and create images using Black Forest Labs' Flux Pro model. Additionally, the assistant uses Mistral's new Pixtral Large model to handle documents and images.
Everyday Knowledge Queries: Users can ask Le Chat about various issues encountered in daily life, such as cooking methods or travel recommendations, to obtain detailed information. For example, asking for specific cooking steps and precautions for a particular dish.
Learning Assistance: Students can rely on Le Chat for explanations and ideas regarding course content or assignment difficulties during their studies. For instance, understanding the derivation process of a mathematical formula or the deeper meaning of a literary work.
Work Collaboration Support: In work scenarios, team members can use Le Chat to quickly obtain industry trends, market information, etc., assisting in project decisions. For example, marketing personnel checking the latest updates on competitors.
Creative Inspiration: Creators can exchange ideas with Le Chat to gain creative inspiration in writing, design, and other creative tasks. For example, a writer inquiring about possible plot developments while brainstorming a story.
Language Learning: Language learners can practice conversations with Le Chat to improve their language expression and comprehension skills while understanding language usage habits in different cultural contexts. For example, practicing English speaking dialogues and correcting grammar mistakes.
[Le Chat] User Guide
Visit the Le Chat platform (https://chat.mistral.ai/chat).
Type your question or the topic you want to discuss in the input box. For example, enter "What will the weather be like in Xiamen tomorrow?"
Check the response generated by Le Chat. If satisfied, you can continue to the next round of conversation; if you need to clarify further, you can add information based on the prompts or on your own before asking again. For instance, if you have specific time requirements for the weather, you can add, "I want to know the weather in Xiamen tomorrow morning."
If you need to review conversation history, find the entry point for conversation history in the interface, click to view previous exchanges for review or to continue asking questions based on prior discussions.
During use, if you have questions about certain features or need to adjust settings (like language preferences), look for the settings option to make the necessary adjustments.
After completing the conversation, decide whether to save the conversation history or take other actions based on your personal needs.
Conclusion
The core of Mistral's AI tools is Le Chat, a free platform that has been enhanced with new features provided by Pixtral Large. The Mistral team has released the following content regarding the updated Le Chat:
"Currently, all these features are launched as free beta versions. At Mistral AI, our approach to AI is different—we do not pursue AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) at all costs; our mission is to put cutting-edge AI in your hands, allowing you to decide how to utilize advanced AI capabilities. This approach enables us to use funds quite frugally while consistently providing cutting-edge features at affordable prices. On Le Chat, we offer a generous free package that includes these beta features, while also committing to providing a premium package with higher service guarantees."
Le Chat, as an outstanding product of Mistral AI, demonstrates high practicality across various scenarios with its powerful natural language processing capabilities, rich knowledge base, and personalized interaction experience. From simple daily queries to complex creative inspiration, it can be a valuable assistant for users.
If you haven't tried Le Chat yet, why not experience it now? We believe you will be captivated by its charm. Also, feel free to like, comment, and share your experiences with us as we witness the continuous progress of AI products and stay tuned for their profound impact on our lives and work in the future.
