Global Diversity & Inclusion update at Microsoft: Deepening our commitment

- Gwen Houston - Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer

Earlier today, we shared our latest workforce demographic numbers on our Global Diversity & Inclusion website. This update provides a snapshot of the gender and racial composition of Microsoft’s employee population as of September 30, 2016. I encourage anyone with an interest in diversity and inclusion — both at Microsoft as well as within the tech industry as a whole — to visit our website and familiarize themselves with our … Read more »

Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation, works to democratize AI and invests in clean energy data centers — Weekend Reading: Nov. 18 edition

- Thomas Kohnstamm
art-connect2016_nyc_cityscape_final_1600x600_lowres-1024x384

This week at Microsoft was packed with big aspirations and big announcements. From data centers entirely powered by wind farms to AI partnerships with Elon Musk and the company’s ever-deeper involvement in open source (yes, you read that correctly), nothing was business as usual. And, as happens every November, much of the news came out of the main event: Connect(); 2016 developer conference in New York City. Welcome to this … Read more »

Advancing our ambition to democratize artificial intelligence

- Harry Shum - Executive Vice President, Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research Group
Photo of Harry Shum and Sam Altman standing side-by-side, arms folded and grinning. Photo by Brian Smale.

We are at an incredible moment in technology history. Thanks to cloud computing power, more advanced algorithms and the availability of massive amounts of data, the artificial intelligence (AI) field has exploded – allowing computer scientists to create technology many of us only dreamed about just a few years ago. Using deep learning, computers today can recognize the words in a conversation about as well as a person does and … Read more »

Using web search data to detect lung cancer and swinging through the universe with Kinect – Weekend Reading: Nov. 11 edition

- Susanna Ray

While the U.S. election dominated global headlines, there has been lots of other news you may have missed, including Microsoft researchers who detected lung cancer risks through web search logs, and an art exhibit where you can explore the universe from the seat of a swing. So take a moment to look at the world around you – and beyond – this weekend. Although smoking cigarettes is the leading cause … Read more »

Microsoft Teams, ‘Minecraft: Education Edition,’ Microsoft PowerApps and Flow – oh, my! It’s Weekend Reading, Nov. 4 edition

- Suzanne Choney - Microsoft News Center Staff
Microsoft Teams, Office 365

We said “hello” this week to some new team members, including Microsoft Teams, “Minecraft: Education Edition” and Microsoft PowerApps and Flow, met Microsoft employees and the people they help through the Microsoft Giving Campaign, and ushered in new era of open source hardware development at cloud speed. BAM! Microsoft Teams, a chat-based workspace in Office 365, debuted in preview. Most of us work in teams, but we’re not always together … Read more »

Microsoft PowerApps and Flow are generally available starting tomorrow

- James Phillips - Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Business Applications, Platform and Intelligence
Photo of various different devices, including a tablet and three phones

After a rewarding journey hand-in-hand with the many customers and partners who participated in our preview programs (thank you!), we’re excited to announce the general availability of Microsoft PowerApps and Microsoft Flow. Beginning Tuesday, both services will be available to users around the world and in 42 languages. Both PowerApps and Flow will be included with Dynamics 365 and in the subscriptions of millions of Office 365 Enterprise and Business … Read more »

Windows 10 Creators Update and Surface Studio empower individual creativity, Surface Dial is an all-around nifty device, and every gamer can be a broadcaster – Weekend Reading, Oct. 28 edition

- Suzanne Choney - Microsoft News Center Staff
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We’re all creators, whether it means adding a personalized emoji to a message, dreaming up a new world in “Minecraft” or reimagining a remodel of a house or office. That’s why the announcement of the next Windows 10 update, Windows 10 Creators Update, was the big news of the week, but there was plenty more. Let’s go! Windows 10 Creators Update coming in early 2017: The free update to Windows … Read more »

Windows 10 Creators Update, Surface Studio and more unleash a new wave of creativity

- Microsoft Corporate Blogs
Photo of new Microsoft Studio with colorful mountains and sunset displayed on its monitor

On Wednesday, Microsoft shared its aspiration to empower a new wave of creativity with the Windows 10 Creators Update, the introduction of Surface Studio and Surface Dial, a new Surface Book and more. “With Windows 10, our goal is to have the effect of the Gutenberg press on this next generation of computing, enabling 3D creativity, mixed reality, and eSports and game broadcasting for everyone,” says Terry Myerson, executive vice … Read more »

Newly updated Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit can help speed advances in deep learning

- Microsoft Corporate Blogs
Photo of Frank Seide standing at the top of a stairway at Microsoft

Microsoft has released an updated version of Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, a system for deep learning that is used to speed advances in areas such as speech and image recognition and search relevance on CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs. The toolkit, previously known as CNTK, was initially developed by computer scientists at Microsoft who wanted a tool to do their own research more quickly and effectively. It quickly moved beyond speech and … Read more »

Imagine Cup rings in its 15th anniversary with $100,000 top prize

- Steve Guggenheimer - Corporate Vice President, Developer Experience & Evangelism and Chief Evangelist, Microsoft
Photo of three Imagine Cup competitors on stage, two with a fist raised as if celebrating, with a trophy in the foreground

One of the best parts of my job as Microsoft’s chief evangelist is the opportunity it affords me to interact with students. They represent the next generation of innovators, makers and builders, and it is their creativity and hunger to drive change that will help shape what our tomorrow will look like. With that in mind, I am excited to announce the launch of the 2017 Imagine Cup – now … Read more »

Flash to the future: Major breakthrough in speech recognition, Bing and Azure use an AI supercomputer in the cloud — Weekend Reading: Oct. 21 edition

- Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft researchers from the Speech & Dialog research group include, from back left, Wayne Xiong, Geoffrey Zweig, Xuedong Huang, Dong Yu, Frank Seide, Mike Seltzer, Jasha Droppo and Andreas Stolcke. (Photo by Dan DeLong)

In this edition of Weekend Reading, we have stories on a historic milestone in speech recognition, an AI supercomputer in the cloud and significant advancements for the Government Cloud. Microsoft has made a major breakthrough in speech recognition, creating a technology that understands a conversation as well as a person does. In a paper published Monday, a team of researchers and engineers in Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research reported a speech … Read more »