Mistral for All? An education answer to digital sovereignty?

Anyone who doesn't know the term digital sovereignty yet has probably been living under a rock these past few months.

Still, it remains a difficult theme. Of course we don't want to be dependent on large foreign technology companies, but at the same time we don't want to fall behind in the latest developments either. Fortunately, for quite a few digital applications a safe, European or Belgian alternative exists today. For some solutions, Flanders or Belgium even belongs to the international frontrunners.

Now that artificial intelligence is increasingly finding its way into education, digital sovereignty is becoming an important point of attention there as well.

Broadly speaking, we see two lines of thought here. On the one hand, we absolutely want to avoid our education lagging behind in the integration of AI. AI literacy and the sensible use of AI tools will, after all, become crucial skills for the next generations. On the other hand, we don't want to become completely dependent on a handful of large, mainly American (or Chinese) technology companies.

But perhaps there is an opportunity right here. For education, for Flanders and perhaps even for politics.

Because there is, of course, Mistral. Of French origin, de facto a European player and an interesting alternative for those who attach importance to European values, control over data and GDPR compliance.

And of course, Mistral's current models are not always as powerful today as the most advanced versions of OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Gemini.

But is that really necessary? Does an average student truly need Opus, GPT-6 or another top model to support them with schoolwork? The reality is that most students today use free versions of AI tools, which are often based on older models. And for 99% of applications, those are perfectly sufficient.

So suppose a minister were to free up a limited budget tomorrow to give every student in (for example) secondary education access to a Mistral licence.

What a powerful signal that would be.

• For education, because it enables controlled use of AI, reduces shadow use and creates room for better guidance and training.
• For Europe, because a large education region explicitly chooses a European AI model and thereby helps invest in a stronger technological ecosystem.
• For Flanders, because it can once again take on a pioneering role in the field of innovation in education.
• And perhaps also for the minister themselves. Because apart from the practical benefits, such a decision would show vision, daring and a clear choice for the combination of innovation and digital autonomy.

After all, digital sovereignty doesn't have to mean that we close the door to innovation. Perhaps it means precisely that we consciously choose which innovation we want to strengthen.