OptiMind: A small language model with optimization expertise
| Xinzhi Zhang, Zeyi Chen, Humishka Hope, Hugo Barbalho, Konstantina Mellou, Marco Molinaro, Janardhan (Jana) Kulkarni, Ishai Menache, and Sirui Li
OptiMind is a small language model that converts business operation challenges, described naturally, into mathematical formulations that optimization software can solve. It reduces formulation time & errors & enables fast, privacy-preserving local use.
《AI Next》是微软亚洲研究院推出的一档利用 AI 技术制作的播客，内容聚焦 AI 前沿技术、科研趋势与社会影响。第一季主要围绕当今智能发展的核心议题，探索前沿趋势。 在《AI Next》第四期中，我们邀请到微软亚洲研究院首席科学家韦福如，从第一性原理出发，与大家探讨当前 AI 发展中最核心、具有争议的前沿问题。为何 Scaling 仍是 AI 的第一性原理，但必须走向“科学规模化”；为什么...
刘璟：在系统建造者时代，让计算基础设施实现“自我进化”
编者按：如今，大模型和生成式人工智能的爆发正把计算推向前所未有的复杂境地：硬件以惊人的速度迭代，应用负载瞬息万变，而传统系统却仍被束缚在过往的固化规则中。面对这种“上下皆动”的挑战，刘璟和同事正试图在人工智能的不可预测性与系统的刚性之间，为操作系统注入全新的自主适应能力。 在计算机科学的世界里，系统一直扮演着沉默的基石角色，它托举着上层应用的高效运行，却深埋于底层硬件的复杂逻辑之中。对微软亚洲研究...
On Second Thought
On Second Thought is a video series built around the questions everyone’s asking about AI. With expert voices from across Microsoft, we break down the tension and promise of this rapidly changing technology, exploring what’s evolving and what’s possible.
In the news | World Economic Forum
AI can be harnessed to protect nature and strengthen food security. Here’s how
Food systems, on land and at sea, are foundational to global economies and human flourishing. They are sources of livelihood for millions of people and provide nutrition for everyone on the planet. Yet today, these systems are under pressure, making…
In the news | Fast Company
What 11 top designers want to redesign in 2026
From look-alike SUVs to AI interfaces, designers from Figma, Microsoft, Pentagram, and more reveal the objects, places, and experiences they’re working to improve this year.
机器人缺大规模数据？VITRA用人类视频重建VLA预训练新范式
编者按：数据稀缺是目前限制通用机器人操作大模型进展的重要因素之一。基于遥操的机器人轨迹获取成本高、多样性不足、本体多变，难以获得支撑大模型预训练的海量数据。在人形机器人的发展路径中，人类可被视为最重要的参考形态之一。因此，直接使用真实的人类数据进行预训练，比用机器人数据具有更大的潜力。因为人类的形态和动作模式更稳定、通用，人类数据规模大、多样化且易于获取，更可能达到规模化，以提升模型的泛化能力。...
In the news | Microsoft Corporate Responsibility
Global AI Adoption in 2025—A Widening Digital Divide
Global adoption of artificial intelligence continued to rise in the second half of 2025, increasing by 1.2 percentage points compared to the first half of the year, with roughly one in six people worldwide now using generative AI tools, remarkable progress for a…
In the news | Reuters
How AI’s predictive power is helping to prevent deforestation
January 7 - In the past decade, cloud-scale analytics tools have transformed the digital fight against deforestation. Instead of manual reviews of satellite images taking multiple months, land-use change can today be monitored in near-real time. Some artificial intelligence-enabled tools…