The most popular language models out there may be accessed via API, but open models — as far as that term can be taken seriously — are gaining ground. Mistral, a French AI startup that raised a huge seed round in June, has just taken the wraps off its first model, which it claims outperforms others of its size — and it's totally free to use without restrictions. The Mistral 7B model is available today for download by various means, including a 13.4-gigabyte torrent (with a few hundred seeders already).