
Ecosia Says Shift Away From Mistral Is About Open Models, Not China
Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll told EU-Startups the search engine is moving to affordable, energy-efficient open AI models, not toward Chinese technology.
AfroEuropa Newsroom
AfroEuropa desk
Berlin-based search engine Ecosia has clarified that its decision to stop using French AI provider Mistral is driven by a move toward open AI models rather than a turn to Chinese technology, founder and CEO Christian Kroll told EU-Startups.
The clarification follows a POLITICO report that Ecosia was replacing Mistral with open models, among them Chinese offerings such as Alibaba's Qwen, Z.ai's GLM and Moonshot AI's Kimi. Kroll told EU-Startups that the company's priority is the open nature of the models rather than where they come from, pointing to lower costs, greater flexibility and reduced energy use, factors he linked to Ecosia's environmental mission.
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