UK watchdog decides not to investigate Microsoft's AI partnership with France's Mistral

British regulators say they don’t need to open a competition investigation into Microsoft’s partnership with French artificial intelligence company Mistral, a month after asking for industry feedback on the deal. Microsoft announced earlier this year that it was partnering with the buzzy French startup in a move that that could lessen the software giant’s reliance on ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for supplying the next wave of chatbots and other generative AI products. The Competion and Markets Authority said in a brief update that the tie-up “does not qualify for investigation” under U.K. merger rules. The watchdog had said in April that it was seeking comments from “interested third parties,” before deciding whether to carry out an in-depth antitrust investigation.