Ecosia Replaces Mistral With Multiple Open-Weight AI Models

Summary

German search engine Ecosia is replacing Mistral with multiple open-weight AI models through a partnership with German AI platform Melious. The models include the Chinese-developed Qwen, GLM and Kimi. Ecosia founder and CEO Christian Kroll said the switch roughly halved the company’s costs while improving model quality and performance. Ecosia had adopted Mistral in May after moving away from OpenAI, but Kroll said the company repeatedly encountered technical problems, including overloaded servers, and was dissatisfied with the models’ quality. Under the new arrangement, Ecosia can access several models through Melious instead of depending on a single AI developer. The article presents the change as both a cost and reliability decision, while the available information does not specify which model is used for which search function or provide independent measurements of the reported quality improvements.