As an interesting side effect, due to cultural cross-pollination between the Middle East and South Asia, Saba also works well with Indian-origin languages, per Mistral — especially South Indian-origin languages, such as Tamil and Malayalam.
The new model represents an interesting strategic move for the French AI giant, showing an increased focus on the Middle East. Mistral said it expects the model will help it gain traction among customers in the region.
As an off-the-shelf model, Mistral Saba could be used for conversational support or content generation in Arabic that sounds more natural and relevant. It can also be used as the basis for some fine-tuned models for internal use cases, the company said.