PeopleofSuperintelligence

Public voice

William El Sayed

William El Sayed works in Public Sector GTM at Mistral AI, leading engagements with governments and regulated industries that use generative AI. Trained as an economist and political scientist, they worked with French ministries on technology, innovation, and AI strategies, including France's national AI roadmap under France 2030, and initially served as Founder Associate and chief of staff to CEO Arthur Mensch at Mistral AI. They coauthored Mistral 7B and Mixtral of Experts, then discussed model efficiency in a November 2024 OUTSCALE interview. They spoke at Bpifrance and AFD events in 2024 and 2025, presented Mistral AI at CERN in 2025, and spoke on an ESA panel in May 2026. By June 2026, they hold a Government & Public Sector role at Mistral AI.

Timeline

  1. October 2023

    Coauthoring Mistral 7B

    In October 2023, they are among the 18 authors of Mistral 7B, a 7-billion-parameter language model that outperforms Llama 2 13B across all evaluated benchmarks. The models are released under the Apache 2.0 license.

  2. January 2024

    Mixtral of Experts

    In January 2024, they are among the 26 authors of Mixtral of Experts, which introduces Mixtral 8x7B, a sparse mixture-of-experts language model that outperforms or matches Llama 2 70B and GPT-3.5 across all evaluated benchmarks.

  3. June 2024

    A Bpifrance webinar

    In June 2024, they speak at Bpifrance's generative AI webinar, L'IA générative made in France.

  4. November 2024

    OUTSCALE on model efficiency

    In November 2024, they answer questions about generative AI for OUTSCALE. They explain that Mistral 7B, released in September 2023, matches the performance of models five times its size, and that lightweight models suit tasks such as translation and summarization.

  5. February 2025

    Mistral AI at AFD

    In February 2025, they present Mistral AI at AFD Group's AI for Development event during the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit as Mistral AI's Director of Public Policy.

  6. By May 2025

    Founder Associate at Mistral

    By May 2025, their earlier work with French government ministries covers technology, innovation, and AI strategies, including France's national AI roadmap under France 2030. Trained as an economist and political scientist, they initially serve as Founder Associate and chief of staff to CEO Arthur Mensch at Mistral AI.

  7. June 2025

    Mistral AI at CERN

    In June 2025, they and Nicolas Schuhl give a 20-minute presentation on Mistral AI at the CERN x Mistral AI workshop.

  8. May–June 2026

    Public-sector work at Mistral

    In May 2026, they speak on an ESA panel at the AI Now Summit in Paris with Giuseppe Borghi, head of ESA's Φ-lab Division, while serving as Public Sector GTM at Mistral AI. By June 2026, they hold a Government & Public Sector role at Mistral AI and lead public-sector and regulated-industry engagements that help governments and institutions use generative AI to improve innovation, efficiency, and service delivery.

  1. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public rolesIncludes William El Sayed. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public roles. Another 97 people moved from public careers into AI organizations or research, with 62% of dated records starting from 2020 on.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Mistral AI. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes Mistral AI. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.
  4. Of 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google, 446 work there nowIncludes Mistral AI. Our estimates of where the 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google and Google DeepMind work now: 446 at Google and 452 across 278 other organizations.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of William El Sayed yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. [2310.06825] Mistral 7B arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. [2401.04088] Mixtral of Experts arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. L'IA générative made in France | Bpifrance app.livestorm.co. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Four Questions for William El Sayed – Mistral AI - OUTSCALE blog blog.outscale.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Artificial Intelligence Action Summit: The AFD Group is mobilized and ready | AFD - Agence Française de Développement liban.afd.fr. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. ThursTalks with Mistral AI: Evaluations · Luma luma.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. CERN x Mistral AI (17 June 2025) · Indico indico.cern.ch. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. AI Now Summit | Paris, May 28, 2026 | Mistral AI ainowsummit.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. AI Now Summit | Paris, May 28, 2026 | Mistral AI ainowsummit.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  10. 7517 | Region Gotland gotland.se. Checked 21 October 2026.