摘要：爱与罚...

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微软牵手Mistral，投入数十亿美元布局欧洲AI算力_我的网站

王子变青蛙

一 | IT之家 7 月 21 日消息，微软当地时间周二宣布，已与法国人工智能初创公司 Mistral 达成合作协议，将投入数十亿美元建设 Mistral 在欧洲的算力基础设施，同时借助微软的云计算和软件平台，在全球进一步推广 Mistral 的 AI 技术。

二 | 根据协议，微软 Azure 客户将能够直接使用 Mistral 位于法国的数据中心开发 AI 应用。

三 | 这不仅将提升微软在欧洲的算力资源，也为金融、政府等受监管行业提供了一个不依赖美国控制基础设施的替代方案。 LOS ANGELES -- By the time the scuba dive boat sank off the Southern California coast after catching fire, 34 people had been killed in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history.The Labor Day tragedy in 2019 spurred changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and civil lawsuits. Now four years later, a federal trial for the Conception's captain, Jerry Boylan, is set to begin Tuesday with jury selection in Los Angeles.It's been a long, frustrating wait for the families of those who perished. They say a judge's ruling that their loved ones should not be called “victims” at trial has only added to their pain. “The past four years have been like living in a nightmare that you don’t wake up from,” said Kathleen McIlvain, whose 44-year-old son Charles was killed. The 75-foot (23-meter) boat was anchored off the Channel Islands, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Santa Barbara, on Sept. 2, 2019, when it caught fire before dawn on the last day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet (30 meters) from shore. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed Boylan for the tragedy, saying his failure to post a roving night watchman allowed the fire to quickly spread undetected, trapping the 33 passengers and one crew member below. Those on board included a new deckhand who’d landed her dream job and an environmental scientist who did research in Antarctica, along with a globe-trotting couple, a Singaporean data scientist, three sisters, their father and his wife. U.S. District Judge George Wu on Oct. 12 granted Boylan's request to bar most if not all references to “victims” — which the captain's attorneys say is a prejudicial term that jeopardizes his right to a fair trial. It's the latest setback for the prosecution.A grand jury in 2020 initially indicted Boylan on 34 counts of a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as “seaman’s manslaughter” that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters. Each count carries up to 10 years in prison in a conviction, for a total of 340 years.Defense lawyers sought to dismiss those charges, arguing the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes. Prosecutors got a superseding indictment charging Boylan with only one count.Then in 2022, Wu ruled the superseding indictment failed to specify that Boylan acted with gross negligence, saying that was a required element to prove the crime of seaman’s manslaughter. He dismissed that indictment, forcing prosecutors to go before a grand jury again.Boylan is now charged with one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer. The single count means he faces only 10 years behind bars if convicted.He has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. His federal public defenders did not return The Associated Press' repeated requests for comment, and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.Some of the dead were wearing shoes, prompting investigators to believe they were awake and trying to escape. Both exits from the below-deck bunkroom were blocked by flames. Coroner’s reports list smoke inhalation as the cause of death, though official autopsies were never conducted.What exactly started the predawn fire remains unknown. Early official scrutiny appeared to focus on a spot where divers plugged in phones and other electronics. But a Los Angeles Times story, citing a confidential report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the blaze began in a plastic trash can on the main deck though an official cause remains undetermined. Boylan and four crew members sleeping in the upper deck told investigators they tried to save the others but were ultimately forced to jump overboard to survive. Boylan made a mayday call at 3:14 a.m. just before abandoning ship.Dozens of family members have since formed “Advocacy34” to push for strengthened boating regulations. While seeking answers, they’ve comforted each other during loved ones’ missed birthdays and mourned each anniversary.“We have no idea when we’ll get those answers, or if we ever will,” McIlvain said.At the time of the fire, no owner, operator or charterer had been cited or fined for failure to post a roving patrol since 1991, Coast Guard records showed.The NTSB faulted the Coast Guard for not enforcing that requirement and recommended it develop a program to ensure boats with overnight passengers actually have the watchman.The Coast Guard has since enacted new regulations regarding fire detection systems, extinguishers, escape routes and other safety measures as mandated by Congress. But it has yet to implement a comprehensive safety management system after industry advocates pushed back, citing costs.Victims' families have sued the Coast Guard in one of several ongoing civil suits.Three days after the inferno, Truth Aquatics Inc., which belongs to the Conception’s owners, Glen and Dana Fritzler, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles under a pre-Civil War provision of maritime law that allows it to limit its liability to the remains of the boat, which was a total loss. The time-tested legal maneuver has been successfully employed by the owners of the Titanic and other vessels, and requires the Fritzlers show they were not at fault.The couple's attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.In response to the families' outcry, federal lawmakers last year updated the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 so owners can be held liable for damages regardless of the boat’s value afterward. The law is not retroactive, however, and will not apply in the case of the Conception.。

四 | 与此同时，Mistral 已将旗下 AI 模型 Medium 3.5 和 OCR 4 接入微软的 AI 开发平台 Foundry，微软 Copilot Studio 也已支持 Medium 3.5 模型。此外，拥有自建数据中心、通过 Azure Local 使用微软服务的企业，也可以部署 Mistral 的开源 AI 模型。这类模型允许企业获得授权后进行自主开发和定制，更灵活地打造符合自身需求的 AI 系统。

五 | 此次合作凸显出欧洲及其他地区希望减少对美国科技依赖的趋势，以便在未来数字经济和社会发展中掌握更多自主权。同时，这项合作也有助于微软满足市场对开源 AI 模型不断增长的需求。事实上，欧洲推动“AI 主权”的努力已经持续数年。而上个月，美国决定暂停向海外开放旧金山 AI 公司 Anthropic 的两款先进模型，使欧洲对技术自主的需求变得更加迫切。微软总裁布拉德 · 史密斯（Brad Smith）与 Mistral 首席执行官阿瑟 · 门施（Arthur Mensch）在接受路透社采访时表示，双方合作的目标是在保障欧洲 AI 自主性的同时，仍然能够享受到美国软件生态和安全能力带来的优势。史密斯表示：“通过让 Mistral 模型同时运行在 Azure Local 和 Mistral 自己的算力平台上，我们能够把美国和欧洲的技术结合起来，并以一种能够持续、可靠提供服务的方式实现这一目标。” 不过，要让欧洲真正摆脱对美国技术的依赖并非易事。当前推动全球 AI 热潮的英伟达 GPU 仍由美国设计，而 Mistral 的数据中心建设同样依赖英伟达芯片。英伟达与微软一样，也是 Mistral 的投资方。史密斯强调，此次公布的合作协议并不包含微软对 Mistral 新增股权投资。对于彭博社此前报道称 Mistral 正洽谈新一轮融资、计划以约 200 亿欧元（IT之家注：现汇率约合 1547.14 亿元人民币）估值融资约 30 亿欧元的消息，门施拒绝置评。总部位于巴黎的 Mistral 被视为欧洲 AI 领域最具代表性的企业之一，也是欧洲在 AI 竞争中的重要希望。目前，公司主要面向制造业、金融服务和国防等领域提供 AI 解决方案，并已获得法国军方订单。不过，与 Anthropic 等美国 AI 公司相比，其估值仍存在明显差距。门施表示，此次合作表明，微软和 Mistral 正在共同努力，缩小欧洲在 AI 基础设施方面与美国之间的差距。 Mistral 计划到 2030 年建设总计 1 吉瓦的 AI 算力基础设施。虽然门施没有披露微软此次合作的具体投资金额，但他表示，这项协议证明了 Mistral 当前发展战略的正确性。