German search engine Ecosia is dropping French AI firm Mistral in favor of open source models, including Chinese alternatives such as Qwen, GLM and Kimi.

German search engine Ecosia is dropping French AI firm Mistral in favor of open source models, including Chinese alternatives such as Qwen, GLM and Kimi.

Ecosia CEO Christian Carroll said Mistral's models are "a year" behind competitors, citing poor performance, recurring server problems and concerns about its dependence on foreign investors.

Ecosia, which replaced OpenAI with Mistral in May, says the switch to open source models has cut costs by about half while improving quality and performance.

Carroll believes that Europe can compete in artificial intelligence by building on open models with Chinese backing rather than spending billions on its own development.

Source: POLITICO