Microsoft

Microsoft's Bing team has open-sourced Harrier, a 27-billion-parameter embedding model that supports over 100 languages and features a 131,072-token context window. The model ranks first on the MTEB v2 multilingual benchmark, outperforming proprietary offerings from OpenAI and Amazon, and is available on Hugging Face under the MIT license.

Microsoft released public preview versions of three proprietary AI models: MAI-Transcribe-1 for speech recognition across 25 languages at 50% lower GPU cost than alternatives, MAI-Voice-1 for speech synthesis generating 60 seconds of audio in under a second, and MAI-Image-2 for text-to-image generation. The models are available exclusively through Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and already power Copilot, Bing, and PowerPoint.

Microsoft AI released three foundational models on April 2: MAI-Transcribe-1 for speech-to-text across 25 languages, MAI-Voice-1 for audio generation, and MAI-Image-2 for video generation. The company positions these models as cheaper alternatives to Google and OpenAI offerings. Models are available on Microsoft Foundry with pricing starting at $0.36 per hour for transcription.

Microsoft has released MAI-Transcribe-1, a speech-to-text model that achieves the lowest word error rate on the FLEURS benchmark across 25 languages, outperforming Whisper-large-V3, GPT-Transcribe, and Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite. The model runs 2.5 times faster than Microsoft's previous Azure Fast offering and costs $0.36 per audio hour.

Microsoft released the Harrier-OSS embedding model family, comprising three variants with 270M, 600M, and 27B parameters. The largest model achieves 74.3 on the Multilingual MTEB v2 benchmark. All models support 32,768 max tokens and multilingual inputs across 40+ languages.

Microsoft has released Harrier-OSS-v1, a family of multilingual text embedding models trained with contrastive learning and knowledge distillation. The 0.6B parameter variant achieves a 69.0 score on the Multilingual MTEB v2 benchmark with support for 32,768 token context windows and 45+ languages.

Microsoft is expanding Copilot Cowork availability and introducing a Critique function that enables one AI model to review another's output. The update also includes a new Researcher agent claiming best-in-class deep research performance, outperforming Perplexity by 7 points, and a Model Council feature for direct model comparison.

Microsoft has enabled its Copilot Researcher tool to simultaneously leverage OpenAI's GPT and Anthropic's Claude through two new features: Critique, which uses GPT responses refined by Claude, and Model Council, which displays side-by-side outputs with agreement/disagreement analysis. Both features are rolling out in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Frontier early access program.

Microsoft's superintelligence team, led by Mustafa Suleyman, has released MAI-Image-2, a text-to-image generator that currently ranks third on the Arena.ai leaderboard for text-to-image models, behind OpenAI's GPT-Image-1.5 and Google's Nano Banana 2. The model is now available for testing in the MAI Playground and will roll out to Copilot and Bing Image Creator, with API access opening to all developers through Microsoft Foundry.

Microsoft announced Friday it will reduce Copilot AI integrations across Windows 11, removing the assistant from Photos, Widgets, Notepad, and Snipping Tool. The move reflects what the company calls a shift toward integrating AI "where it's most meaningful" and comes amid growing consumer skepticism about AI features.

Microsoft has launched Copilot Health, an AI-powered tool designed to integrate fitness data from 50+ devices, medical records from 50,000+ US healthcare providers, and health history into unified summaries. The company plans to charge for access via subscription after a free trial period, though pricing remains undisclosed.

GitHub has removed premium AI models including GPT-5.4, Claude Opus, and Claude Sonnet from its free Copilot Student plan effective March 12, 2026. The change leaves students with access only to lower-cost models: Claude 4.5 Haiku, Gemini 3.1 Pro, and GPT-5.3 Codex. GitHub's decision triggered 2,874 downvotes versus 21 upvotes on the announcement, with students arguing they need premium models to learn industry-standard tools.

Microsoft has launched Copilot Health, a separate space within Copilot designed to aggregate electronic health records and wearable data for personalized health insights. The service explicitly disclaims providing medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment—positioning itself as a wellness tool rather than clinical decision support.

Microsoft is previewing Copilot Tasks, an AI feature that automates routine work by running on Microsoft's cloud infrastructure rather than your device. Users can describe tasks in natural language and schedule them to run on a recurring, one-time, or scheduled basis across browsers and applications.

Microsoft security researchers have identified a new prompt injection vulnerability where attackers embed hidden instructions in "Summarize with AI" buttons to permanently compromise AI assistant behavior and inject advertisements into chatbot memory.

Microsoft's technical report systematically evaluates methods to distinguish authentic media from AI-generated content and finds none are reliably effective on their own. The findings contradict regulatory assumptions underlying new laws designed to combat deepfakes and synthetic media.

Microsoft is developing a new authentication and verification system designed to help users distinguish authentic content from AI-generated material circulating online. The initiative addresses the growing problem of AI-enabled deception now prevalent across social media and digital platforms.