Microsoft

Microsoft introduces real-time transcription and multilingual voice models

Microsoft has launched MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming, a speech-to-text model designed to produce live transcripts with very low delay. Microsoft AI announces the models in an official blog post, alongside the new text-to-speech systems MAI-Voice-2.1 and MAI-Voice-2.1-Flash. The company says MAI-Transcribe-2-Streaming supports 60 languages and can continuously identify the language being spoken. Instead of waiting until a speaker …

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Microsoft unifies chat, coding, and AI agents in new Copilot app

Microsoft is launching a redesigned Copilot application that combines AI chat, coding tools, and autonomous agents in one workspace. Tom Warren reports for The Verge that the company is also renaming its AI assistant Scout as Autopilot. The new interface has three tabs: Home, Code, and Autopilot. Home becomes the default view and brings together …

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Microsoft is reshaping Copilot as features disappear and one app takes over

Microsoft is beginning to merge its consumer Copilot app and Microsoft 365 Copilot into a single application called Microsoft Copilot. Todd Bishop reports for GeekWire that the move starts with selected Windows Insiders and will expand to mobile and web users in mid-August, followed by Windows and Mac desktop apps in mid-September. The company presents …

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Microsoft expands in-house AI push with cheaper models for image and voice tasks

Microsoft is expanding its in-house AI portfolio with new image and speech models, while shifting more product traffic away from expensive general-purpose systems. The company has placed MAI-Image-2.5-Pro and MAI-Voice-2-Flash into public preview. MAI-Image-2.5-Pro targets detailed image creation, editing and text within images. MAI-Voice-2-Flash is designed for large-scale speech applications such as contact centres and …

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Microsoft bets billions on Mistral to bring sovereign AI to Europe

Microsoft is making a multibillion-dollar commitment to expand Mistral’s AI computing infrastructure in Europe, as the two companies broaden their partnership for enterprises and regulated industries. The agreement gives Microsoft additional European capacity for its cloud and AI services. It also gives customers more ways to use Mistral’s models while keeping workloads, data and operations …

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Microsoft launches $2.5 billion Frontier Company to embed AI engineers with clients

Microsoft is launching a new business unit called Microsoft Frontier Company, backing it with $2.5 billion and 6,000 engineers who will work directly inside client organizations. Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business, writes on the Official Microsoft Blog that the initiative goes beyond so-called forward-deployed engineering, aiming to be the largest outcome-driven engineering organization …

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Microsoft launches its first advanced reasoning AI model

Microsoft has unveiled MAI-Thinking-1, its first in-house advanced reasoning AI model. Jay Peters reports for The Verge that the announcement came at Microsoft’s Build 2026 developer conference, alongside several other new models targeting image generation, transcription, voice, and coding. Microsoft describes MAI-Thinking-1 as its new “flagship” model and a “medium-sized model” that “matches leading models” …

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The OS as gatekeeper: Microsoft puts a leash on autonomous AI agents

Microsoft has introduced a new security framework designed to contain AI agents running on Windows devices. Called Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), the system lets developers and IT administrators define precisely what an AI agent is allowed to do — and enforces those rules at the level of the operating system kernel. Michael Nuñez reports for …

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Microsoft Scout promises to manage your calendar and emails automatically

Microsoft Scout is an always-on AI agent that manages emails, calendar conflicts, and internal messages on behalf of office workers. Reece Rogers reports for WIRED that Microsoft announced Scout at its Build developer conference. Scout is built on top of OpenClaw, an AI tool that attracted early adopters in San Francisco at the start of …

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Microsoft Build 2026: From AI models to a Copilot super app

Microsoft opens its annual Build conference in San Francisco this week, aiming to rebuild trust with developers at a moment of significant change. Tom Warren reports for The Verge that sources point to a packed agenda, including new AI models, a revamped Windows developer experience, and a so-called Copilot “super app.” Windows gets a developer-focused …

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