Welcome to Research Focus, a series of blog posts that highlights notable publications, events, code/datasets, new hires and other milestones from across the research community at Microsoft. EVENT RECAP Microsoft Research Forum series kicks off with focus on the promise and challenges of AI With a look back at the incredible changes of 2023 and a look ahead at the tangible advances to come, the inaugural Microsoft Research Forum explored bold new ideas and  

IVAN TASHEV: So I’m born in a city called Yambol in Bulgaria, my origin country. The city [was] created 2,000 years B.C. and now sits on the two shores of the river called Tundzha. It always has been an important transportation and agricultural center in the entire region, and I grew up there in a family of two lecturers. My parents were teaching history. And they loved to travel. So everywhere I go, I had two excellent tourist guides with […]

Microsoft Research Forum (opens in new tab) is a new series of conversations that explore recent advances, bold new ideas, and important discussions within the global research community. Leading Microsoft researchers will share insights into their work, followed by live online discussions with audience participants. This post provides an overview of the inaugural Microsoft Research Forum conversation, with a summary of each presentation. Full details, including the copilot experience (opens in new tab) and replays of each session (opens in […]

Today, as part of the Accelerate Foundation Models Research (AFMR) initiative, Microsoft is delighted to announce the 10 inaugural grant recipients through the AFMR Minority Serving Institutions grant program. This pilot focuses on supporting historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), providing them with access to the state-of-the-art tools necessary to conduct meaningful and impactful research on AI. In addition to a grant award, recipients are  

JORDAN ASH: Thanks for having us. DIPENDRA MISRA: Yeah, thanks for having us, Gretchen. HUIZINGA: Dipendra, let’s start with a general overview of this paper. In a few sentences, describe the issue or problem your work addresses and, perhaps more importantly, why we should care about it. MISRA: Thanks, Gretchen. So as we know, large language models, also known as LLMs, have revolutionized both business and research in artificial intelligence. They are everywhere, being used to solve a wide range […]

Welcome to Research Focus, a series of blog posts that highlights notable publications, events, code/datasets, new hires and other milestones from across the research community at Microsoft. EVENT SERIES Register for Microsoft Research Forum Join Microsoft Research Forum (opens in new tab) for a continuous exchange of ideas about science and technology research in the era of general AI. This series, which begins on January 30, will  

Azure Cognitive Search is a cloud search service that gives developers APIs and tools to build rich search experiences over private, heterogeneous content in web, mobile, and enterprise applications. It has multiple components, including an API for indexing and querying, seamless integration through Azure data ingestion, deep integration with Azure Cognitive Services, and persistent storage of user-owned indexed content. At the heart of Azure Cognitive Search is its full text, keyword-based search engine built on the BM25 algorithm—an industry standard in information retrieval.   We’ve found that what customers desire next is higher-quality results out of the box with less effort, enabling […]