Model Mondays

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

Join us for Model Mondays – a weekly show where we round up all the latest AI model news and put one model in the spotlight for a deeper dive. In this kickoff episode, we’ll set the stage for season 1 by talking about the models we’ll spotlight. Then, we’ll do a deep dive into GitHub Models and show you how you can get started with exploring these hands-on today, with just a GitHub account! Session Resources: https://aka.ms/model-mondays - Series Repo https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord - Office Hours https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection - Learning Resources

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

Join us for Model Mondays – a weekly show where we round up all the latest AI model news and put one model in the spotlight for a deeper dive. In this episode, we’re joined by Jennifer Marsman as we dive into the world of reasoning models. We’ll get hands-on with the o1 series of models and more as we learn what these models can do, how they work, and how you can use them most effectively for your generative AI application needs. Session Resources: https://aka.ms/model-mondays https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

In this episode, we’ll dive into the world of retrieval augmented generation (RAG). We’ll explore models that can improve the accuracy of search, retrieval and semantic relevance of returned results – and how you can use them to ground your generative AI app in your data! https://aka.ms/model-mondays - Explore All Resources https://aka.ms/model-mondays/chat - Continue The Conversation https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection - Explore The Model Cards https://aka.ms/model-mondays/newsletter - Get The Weekly Recaps

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

In this episode, we’ll dive into the world of visual generative AI and learn how text-to-image and image-to-image capabilities can help us generate high-quality imagery with the power of a single prompt. Popular use cases include style transfer, image restoration - given a seed image. https://aka.ms/model-mondays - Explore All Resources https://aka.ms/model-mondays/chat - Continue The Conversation https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection - Explore The Model Cards https://aka.ms/model-mondays/newsletter - Get The Weekly Recaps

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

In this episode, we’ll dive into the word of fine-tuning for AI model customization. We’ll discuss how it works, when to use it, and tradeoffs to know when choosing this option. And we’ll look at core tools and workflows for performant fine-tuning. https://aka.ms/model-mondays - Explore All Resources https://aka.ms/model-mondays/chat - Continue The Conversation https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection - Explore The Model Cards https://aka.ms/model-mondays/newsletter - Get The Weekly Recaps

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

In this episode, we’ll go hands on with local AI development by putting the spotlight on the AI Toolkit for Visual Studio Code. Join us as we speak to Rong Lu (Principal PM, Microsoft) to learn how this tool helps developers build intelligent apps using generative AI models deployed locally or in the cloud -with support for development, testing, fine-tuning and more. https://aka.ms/model-mondays - Explore All Resources https://aka.ms/model-mondays/chat - Continue The Conversation https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection - Explore The Model Cards https://aka.ms/model-mondays/newsletter - Get The Weekly Recaps

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

Join us for Episode 07 of Season 1 of #ModelMondays as we put the spotlight on open-source and AI development with a look at the Meta #Llama4 herd of recently released models. Huge props to Alexander Hughes for giving us an introduction to the Llama4 capabilities and to Pamela Fox for a hands-on look at multimodal features and more. https://aka.ms/model-mondays - Explore All Resources https://aka.ms/model-mondays/chat - Continue The Conversation https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection - Explore The Model Cards https://aka.ms/model-mondays/newsletter - Get The Weekly Recaps

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

In this episode, we’ll dive into the topic of domain-specific models with a look at forecasting models trained on time-series data. This allows for predictions and anomaly detection use cases without typical training costs and latency of traditional approaches. Learn how this works, and when to use it effectively in your generative AI applications. https://aka.ms/model-mondays - Explore All Resources https://aka.ms/model-mondays/chat - Continue The Conversation https://aka.ms/model-mondays/collection - Explore The Model Cards https://aka.ms/model-mondays/newsletter - Get The Weekly Recaps

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

Learn advanced techniques to improve AI's reasoning and problem-solving skills, enabling smarter and more efficient decision-making.

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

Understand how MCP servers' structure and manage context to ensure AI models deliver accurate and relevant outputs, making them scalable.

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM (UTC)

Explore how compact language models are designed for high performance and efficiency, perfect for resource-limited environments.

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

How can we streamline the AI developer journey from model selection and usage to evaluation and app deployment? Join us as we talk to Leo Yao about the AI Toolkit and Azure AI Foundry extensions for Visual Studio Code – and the key capabilities they provide for generative AI app & agent development. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

Model customization is critical to ensuring the model is optimized for your application requirements. Join us as we talk to Dave Voutila about fine-tuning Azure OpenAI models, using distillation techniques for efficient knowledge transfer, and other best practices in Azure AI Foundry. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

Azure AI Foundry Labs is a hub to explore cutting-edge research from Microsoft. Join us as we talk to SeokJin Han and Saumil Shrivastava about two key projects – the MCP Server for Azure AI Foundry, and the Magentic-UI for advancing research on human-in-the-loop experiences with AI. We're also joined by Steve Frederickson, Head of Product and Zachary Meierhoffer, Product Manager at Capacity, who walk through how Capacity's Answer Engine uses Azure AI Foundry models to unlock insights from knowledge that exists across their organizations. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

Want to bring the power of AI-assisted development to Azure workflows? Join us as we talk to Sandeep Sen about two key tools – the Azure MCP server, and the GitHub Copilot Extension for Azure – that can help you understand, debug & build with Azure resources and services (beyond just Azure AI Foundry) with the power of natural language. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord 📌 This session is a part of a series! Learn more here

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

On-device inference is critical if you want to run AI models locally, on your own hardware, e.g., for edge computing needs. Join us as we talk to Maanav Dalal about Foundry Local – a solution built on ONNX Runtime (for use in CPUs, NPUs & GPUs) & taking you from prototype to production. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

Want to build agentic AI applications but looking for resources to learn configuration and design patterns? Join us as we talk to Mona Whalin about the Azure AI Foundry Agent Catalog – open-source samples you can explore to accelerate your agent development by integration into projects! 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

We’re joined by Mistral AI, the European AI innovator behind Mistral Doc AI, now available as a direct from Azure model in Azure AI Foundry. We’ll dive into how this multimodal, multilingual document processing model unlocks complex unstructured content—turning scanned PDFs, images, and handwritten forms into structured, actionable data. From AI sovereignty to real-world use cases across industries, Mistral will share how Document AI is helping organizations transform their document workflows at scale. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

Want to explore speech capabilities (like text to speech, speech to text, translation etc.) in your browser before switching to code? Try the Azure AI Foundry Speech playground. Join us as we talk to Utkarsh Maheshwari about the Speech resource and how we can use it today to transform the user experience in generative AI applications. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:15 PM (UTC)

Observability is about instrumenting AI apps to collect signals that provide insight into model behavior & performance across the GenAIOps lifecycle. Join us as we talk to Han Che about evaluations, red-teaming & end-to-end observability in Azure AI Foundry – for trustworthy AI! 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

5:30 PM - 6:30 PM (UTC)

Did you know the Hugging Face collection on Azure AI Foundry Models currently has over 10K options? When should we use them and how do we select the right one? Join us as we talk about getting started with Hugging Face models on Azure AI – and how you can request new additions. 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord

6:30 PM - 7:30 PM (UTC)

Every AI development journey begins with model choice. But what if you had a smart model that routed your request to the best model for the job? Join us as we talk to Sanjeev Jagtap about the Model Router – a chat model that optimizes model choice for cost-effective use in Azure AI! 🔎 Explore the repo 📢 Continue the conversation on the Discord