Microsoft has introduced its first in-house AI models, which could set a new direction for the company in the artificial intelligence race. The company has launched two models—MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview.
MAI-Voice-1 is a speech model designed for speed. This model can produce a minute of audio in less than a second using just one GPU. Its use has already begun in some tools. For example, Copilot Daily uses this model to narrate short news and summaries through an AI voice. Apart from this, this model also creates podcast-style conversations to explain complex topics in simple language.
The second model is MAI-1-preview, which is designed for text tasks. It is trained on around 15,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, making it capable of following instructions at scale and handling natural Q&A. It can be tested right now in Copilot Labs and will soon be added to the text-based features of Microsoft’s Copilot assistant.
Microsoft and Open AI
These launches come at a time when Microsoft is still deeply involved with OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT. Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI so far, and the company’s valuation has reached nearly $500 billion. OpenAI relies on Microsoft’s cloud, while Microsoft uses OpenAI’s models in Bing, Windows, and other products. But now the competition between the two companies is also increasing. In its annual report, Microsoft has included OpenAI in the list of competitors like Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta. In its annual report, Microsoft listed OpenAI alongside competitors such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta. At the same time, OpenAI is also now using servers from companies such as Google, Oracle and CoreWeave as demand from ChatGPT’s 700 million weekly users is growing rapidly.
In the new rankings, MAI-1-preview ranked 13th for text workloads, behind models from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. Still, Microsoft is touting this as its first major “in-house foundation model” achievement.
New team and direction
Microsoft’s move also points to its growing AI team. The company has also hired some researchers from DeepMind to accelerate its AI projects.
Currently, Microsoft is adding its new models to the Copilot ecosystem and is also relying on OpenAI in many places.But the launch of MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview indicates that the company is now taking a strong step towards AI model development on its own—which could further intensify the competition between OpenAI and Microsoft.
