What does Pixtral 12B bring to the table?
Pixtral 12B marks Mistral AI’s entry into the multimodal arena, combining both language and vision processing capabilities. While the official details of the model, including the data it was trained upon, are not publicly available, the core idea behind Pixtral 12B is to allow users to analyze images while combining text prompts with them. This means that users can upload an image or provide a link to one and ask questions about the subjects in the file.
Although this is Mistral’s first foray into multimodal models, it’s worth noting that other competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic already have image-processing capabilities. However, what sets Pixtral 12B apart, according to Sophia Yang, the head of developer relations at Mistral, is its native support for an arbitrary number of images of arbitrary sizes.
Initial testers on X have shared some insights into the architecture of Pixtral 12B. The model appears to have 40 layers, 14,336 hidden dimension sizes, and 32 attention heads for extensive computational processing. On the vision front, it boasts a dedicated vision encoder with 1024×1024 image resolution support and 24 hidden layers for advanced image processing. It’s important to note that these specifications may change when the model is made available via API.
Mistral is going all in to take on leading AI labs
Mistral’s launch of Pixtral 12B is part of the company’s efforts to democratize access to visual applications, such as content and data analysis. While the exact performance of the open model is yet to be seen, this release builds on Mistral’s aggressive approach in the AI domain.
Since its launch last year, Mistral has been actively challenging leading AI labs like OpenAI and forging partnerships with industry giants such as Microsoft, AWS, and Snowflake to expand the reach of its technology. In fact, the company recently raised $640 million at a valuation of $6 billion, showcasing the confidence and interest surrounding its advancements.
Prior to Pixtral 12B, Mistral launched Mistral Large 2, a GPT-4 class model with advanced multilingual capabilities and improved performance in reasoning, code generation, and mathematics. The company has also released other models, including Mixtral 8x22B, a mixture-of-experts model, Codestral, a 22B parameter open-weight coding model, and a dedicated model for math-related reasoning and scientific discovery.
Mistral’s consistent innovation and partnerships demonstrate its commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI technology. By offering powerful and versatile models like Pixtral 12B, Mistral aims to empower developers and researchers to explore new possibilities in the field of multimodal AI.
Overall, Mistral AI’s release of Pixtral 12B showcases its dedication to advancing the state of AI and providing accessible tools for analyzing visual data combined with textual prompts. With its impressive architecture and Mistral’s track record of success, Pixtral 12B is poised to make a significant impact in the multimodal AI landscape.