Takeaways from Microsoft Build 2024: Innovations in AI and Beyond
Microsoft Build is Microsoft’s premier annual event for developers using its technologies. The conference features keynotes, workshops, and breakout sessions that showcase Microsoft’s new products, services, and innovations.
Attendees can learn more about Microsoft’s latest products, glean insights from leaders and experts, and meet with Experts and Microsoft engineers to discuss specific questions and use cases.
I had the fantastic opportunity to participate in the Microsoft Build 2024 edition in the ‘Expert Meet-up area’ as an Expert in AI Development! I can’t think of a better time to be involved and to contribute to the Microsoft Build event in Seattle which happened from May 21st to May 23rd, 2024.
Day one. Entering the Keynote session.
Day one started by announcing the finalists and winners of the 2024 Imagine Cup, a global technology startup competition exclusively for students. The winning team this year was FROM YOUR EYES, who developed a mobile application and API to aid users with vision disabilities. Their innovative solution offers real-time visual explanations and works with smart glasses and watches to describe aspects of the users’ environment.
You can read more about it here -👉 Imagine Cup
Right after, Satya Kicked off the Microsoft Build 2024 and addressed how the industry has evolved, the progress made since the last Build, and its mission to empower everyone through AI, transforming workflows, increasing accessibility, and making a significant impact across industries and communities. He emphasized three platforms. The first is Microsoft Copilot, which is an everyday AI companion. It puts knowledge and expertise at your fingertips and helps you act on it. Microsoft also built the Copilot stack so that you can build your AI applications, solutions, and experiences. He also introduced a new category of Copilot+PCs, the fastest AI-first PCs ever built.
Satya addressed how Microsoft is building Azure as the world’s computer; Azure being the most comprehensive global infrastructure with more than 60 datacenter regions and making the best-in-class AI infrastructure available everywhere.
There were more than 50 updates, and you can refer to the Book of News for more details:
Satya also addressed how Microsoft is optimizing power and efficiency across every layer of the stack, from the data center to the network, and how the latest data center designs are purpose built for these AI workloads to effectively and responsibly use every megawatt of power to drive down the cost of AI.
Azure AI Studio was another highlighted topic. Azure AI Studio provides an end-to-end tooling solution to develop and safeguard the copilot apps you build. It also provides guidance for evaluating your AI models and applications for performance and quality.
After Satya’s speech, Rajesh Jha addressed how Microsoft is bringing the Copilot Stack across Microsoft products, its evolution, extensibility, and integration with PCs and Windows.
Then, Jeff Tepper addressed how you will soon be able to build your copilots with your knowledge base to help employees and organizations be more productive with Copilot extensions and Copilot studio.
After that, Kevin Scott addressed the extraordinary Copilot stack and other AI advancements and how they continue to make tools that help you build software efficiently while riding a wave of technological transformation.
Lastly, the conversation with Kevin Scott and Sam Altman focused on the speed of adoption and innovation by developers. Looking ahead, the focus will be on making AI models more efficient, reducing costs, and increasing speed. Moreover, new modalities, like voice interaction, are becoming more critical.
During the event, I had the opportunity to discuss interesting topics such as RAG with Azure AI Search, Azure AI Studio and LLMOps, and Multimodal AI models with Azure OpenAI Service and AI Services.
It was very exciting to engage on conversations and hear how organizations are building their applications on top of Azure AI services and leveraging tools and frameworks like Semantic Kernel, and the advancements of Azure OpenAI Service and the potential multimodality.
There was a lot of content to digest during three days and had the pleasure to attend numerous sessions packed with valuable AI related content:
If you’re interested in the above topics, here’s a resource that explains AI jailbreaks, what they are, and how they can be mitigated: Article
I attended an exclusive Intel workshop where we were given a free AI PC Development Kit. During the workshop, we had hands-on experience with the kit, exploring industry-leading methods for deploying AI models locally and discovering optimization techniques.
You can take a look at the following GitHub repository for more information: Intel AI PC Dev Kit
During the three-day event, myself and other Experts, along with Microsoft engineers, engaged in insightful discussions and provided guidance to customers on building AI applications using Azure AI services, Semantic Kernel, Lang Chain, Model as a Service offerings, and Azure AI Studio.
Contributing to such a great event for our Microsoft Build attendees was incredibly rewarding. I enjoyed engaging with various clients and spending time with friends and the Azure team. Looking forward to more opportunities to connect and share knowledge!
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