AI professionals are buzzing nonstop about Le Chaton Fat, a supposed top-tier AI model from Mistral. The only issue is that it appears entirely fictional.

The trend surged recently following social media claims that the French AI company Mistral had quietly built a leading model called Le Gros Chaton, meaning the fat kitten in French, which supposedly beat competitors from OpenAI and Anthropic.

The gag has grown so popular that some observers beyond AI circles have inquired if the model actually exists.

Numerama, a French tech publication, reports that Le Chaton Fat, blending English and French terms, is not real. It is a detailed joke that started in Mistral's online community and then spread through AI discussions.

Mistral AI did not reply to requests for comment from Business Insider.

How the meme gained momentum

The meme's precise start remains unknown, but jokes appeared soon after Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch revealed at the company's debut summit in Paris last month that the chatbot Le Chat would be rebranded as Vibe.

The change prompted discussion among users, some of whom regretted losing one of AI's most unique product names in Reddit threads.

As talks expanded, Reddit users created elaborate cat-themed follow-ups to Le Chat. Threads in the Mistral subreddit promoted the arrival of Le Chaton Fat, a made-up advanced model with over 30 trillion parameters for accuracy, 1000 meows per second, and maximum chonk.

The humor expanded rapidly.

Users on social platforms posted fake release notices, invented performance graphs showing Le Chaton Fat surpassing OpenAI and Anthropic models, and mock alerts claiming the European Union blocked the model for being too heavy to regulate.

A playful jab at Anthropic

The meme spread further due to the US government's move to prevent foreign access to Anthropic's security-oriented models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5.

These limits became a common motif for creators, who depicted Le Chaton Fat as a strong European option to the restricted Anthropic tools.

Wharton School professor Ethan Mollick referenced the trend in an X post on Monday, noting that the Le Chaton Fat meme is reaching beyond AI circles and expecting questions about Mistral's huge cat model with perfect scores at upcoming corporate meetings.

He added that it beats queries about wet Claude, a nod to another meme about Anthropic's chatbot seeming overly emotional.

Replit CEO Amjad Masad joined in on Tuesday with an X post asking who needs Fable when Mistral offers Le Chaton Fat.

Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch participated too, posting on X that it is actually le gros chaton.

A fitting time for Mistral

Some memes about the US limits on Anthropic models align with Mistral's ongoing push that Europe should avoid reliance on American AI firms.

Mistral promotes itself as an option through open-weight models that run on customer infrastructure and allow customization with private data.

The export rules supported Mensch's repeated point that depending on overseas AI providers risks sudden loss of access.