Why le Chonk?
Mistral's launch post calls Mistral Large 4 “unofficially ML4, very officially: le Chonk”. The post doesn't explain the name. This is what came before it, in order, with a source for each step.
Timeline
Mistral renames its assistant, Le Chat, to Vibe.
Le chat is French for “the cat”.
Sources: Mistral's Vibe launch post, Larousse
Posts on X joke about “Le Chaton Fat”, a giant Mistral model that does not exist.
Chaton is French for kitten.
Sources: a post by GLIF, Larousse
Arthur Mensch, Mistral's co-founder and CEO, posts on X:
It's actually le gros chaton
Gros is French for big or fat.
Sources: Arthur Mensch's post, Mistral's about page, Larousse
Mistral releases Mistral Large 4 as a public preview. The launch post opens:
Unofficially ML4, very officially: le Chonk.
The post uses an orange pixel-art cat as the model's icon.
Sources: Mistral's announcement
The words
| le chat | the catSource: Larousse |
|---|---|
| chaton | kittenSource: Larousse |
| gros | big, fatSource: Larousse |
| chonky | Plump or chubby, especially in an endearing wayEnglish slang, usually said of an animal.Source: Merriam-Webster |
Mistral's cats
The orange cat above is the icon Mistral uses for Mistral Large 4 on its launch post. Mistral's site has a second cat: a black pixel-art cat with an orange collar, which sits in the footer of Mistral's pages and lies around on the Vibe page.