Microsoft Research Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Collaborators: Holoportation™ communication technology with Spencer Fowers and Kwame Darko Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

Transforming research ideas into meaningful impact is no small feat. It often requires the knowledge and experience of individuals from across disciplines and institutions. Collaborators, a new Microsoft Research Podcast series, explores the relationships—both expected and unexpected—behind the projects, products, and services being pursued and delivered by researchers at Microsoft and the diverse range of people they’re teaming up with.

In this episode, host Dr. Gretchen Huizinga welcomes Dr. Spencer Fowers, a member of the Special Projects Technical Staff at Microsoft Research, and Dr. Kwame Darko, a plastic surgeon in the reconstructive plastic surgery and burns center in Ghana’s Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The two are among a group working to make specialized medical care more widely available, especially to those in remote or underserved communities. They share how their 3D telecommunication technology helps bring patients and doctors together when being in the same room isn’t an easy option and how the experience is supporting greater patient satisfaction, allowing more time for surgeons to prepare for surgery, and making the assembly of a super team of medical experts from around the globe more feasible.

Learn more:

3D telemedicine brings better care to underserved and rural communities, even across continents | Microsoft Research Blog, May 2023
Microsoft’s Holoportation Communications Technology: Facilitating 3D Telemedicine | Microsoft Research video, May 2023
Participatory Development of a 3D Telemedicine system during Covid: the future of remote consultations | Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, October 2022
3D Telemedicine | Project page
Holoportation | Project page
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital

Collaborators: Renewable energy storage with Bichlien Nguyen and David Kwabi Jun 22, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Microsoft Principal Researcher Dr. Bichlien Nguyen and Dr. David Kwabi, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, join host Dr. Gretchen Huizinga to talk about how their respective research interests—and those of their larger teams—are converging to develop renewable energy storage systems. They specifically explore their work in flow batteries and how machine learning can help more effectively search the vast organic chemistry space to identify compounds with properties just right for storing waterpower and other renewables for a not rainy day. The bonus? These new compounds may just help advance carbon capture, too.

Learn more

AI Frontiers: The future of causal reasoning with Emre Kiciman and Amit Sharma Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

Powerful new large-scale AI models like GPT-4 are showing dramatic improvements in reasoning, problem-solving, and language capabilities. This marks a phase change for artificial intelligence—and a signal of accelerating progress to come.

In this Microsoft Research Podcast series, AI scientist and engineer Ashley Llorens hosts conversations with his collaborators and colleagues about what these new models—and the models that will come next—mean for our approach to creating, understanding, and deploying AI, its applications in areas such as health care and education, and its potential to benefit humanity.

This episode features Senior Principal Researcher Emre Kiciman and Principal Researcher Amit Sharma, whose paper “Causal Reasoning and Large Language Models: Opening a New Frontier for Causality” examines the causal capabilities of large language models (LLMs) and their implications. Kiciman and Sharma break down the study of cause and effect; recount their respective ongoing journeys with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4—from their preconceptions to where they are now—and share their views of a future in which LLMs help bring together different modes of reasoning in the practice of causal inference and make causal methods easier to adopt.

Learn more

Causal Reasoning and Large Language Models: Opening a New Frontier for Causality | Publication, April 2023
The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond | Book by Peter Lee, April 2023
AI and Microsoft Research | Learn more about the breadth of AI research at Microsoft

Collaborators: Gov4git with Petar Maymounkov and Kasia Sitkiewicz May 03, 2023

Show notes

Transforming research ideas into meaningful impact is no small feat. It often requires the knowledge and experience of individuals from across disciplines and institutions. Collaborators, a new Microsoft Research podcast series, explores the relationships—both expected and unexpected—behind the projects, products, and services being pursued and delivered by researchers at Microsoft and the diverse range of people they're teaming up with.

In this inaugural episode, host Dr. Gretchen Huizinga talks with GitHub Staff Product Manager Kasia Sitkiewicz and Protocol Labs Research Scientist Petar Maymounkov about how their collaboration on Gov4git, a governance tool for decentralized, open-source cooperation, is helping to lay the foundation for a future in which everyone can collaborate more efficiently, transparently, and easily and in the ways that meet the unique desires and needs of their respective communities. They discuss the governance features that make Gov4git more suitable for serving a broader range of communities than today’s public blockchains and the open-source book project allowing them to test the potential and limitations of the work.

https://www.microsoft.com/research

AI Frontiers: Models and Systems with Ece Kamar Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

The third episode features Ece Kamar, deputy lab director at Microsoft Research Redmond. Kamar draws on decades of experience in AI research and an opportunity she and Microsoft colleagues had to evaluate and experiment with GPT-4 prior to its release in discussing the capabilities and limitations of today’s large-scale models. She explores the short-term mitigation techniques she and her team are using to make these models viable components of the AI systems that give them purpose and shares the long-term research questions that will help maximize their value.

https://www.microsoft.com/research

AI Frontiers: AI for health and the future of research with Peter Lee Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

In this new Microsoft Research Podcast series, AI scientist and engineer Ashley Llorens hosts conversations with his collaborators and colleagues about what these new models—and the models that will come next—mean for our approach to creating, understanding, and deploying AI, its applications in areas such as health care and education, and its potential to benefit humanity.

The second episode features Peter Lee, head of Microsoft Research. Lee was among a group within Microsoft to have early access to GPT-4 for evaluation and experimentation. Here, he applies his philosophy of tackling research from what will be inevitably true at a future point in time to this current moment. He also explores the differences that may make integrating today’s AI advancements into health care more attainable, a topic he expands on in the soon-to-be-released book The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond and the New England Journal of Medicine article "Benefits, Limits, and Risks of GPT-4 as an AI Chatbot for Medicine."

https://www.microsoft.com/research

AI Frontiers: The Physics of AI with Sébastien Bubeck Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

The first episode features Sébastien Bubeck, who leads the Machine Learning Foundations group at Microsoft Research in Redmond. He and his collaborators conducted an extensive evaluation of GPT-4 while it was in development, and have published their findings in a paper that explores its capabilities and limitations—noting that it shows “sparks” of artificial general intelligence.

https://www.microsoft.com/research

Collaborators: Gaming AI with Haiyan Zhang Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

In the world of gaming, Haiyan Zhang has situated herself where research meets real-world challenges, helping to bring product teams and researchers together to elevate the player experience with the latest AI advances even before the job became official with the creation of her current role, General Manager of Gaming AI. In this episode, she talks with host Dr. Gretchen Huizinga about the variety of expertise needed to avoid the discomfort experienced by players when they encounter a humanlike character displaying inhuman behavior, the potential for generative AI to make gaming better for both players and creators, and the games she grew up playing and what she plays now.

Learn more

Game Intelligence | Group page
Project Paidia | Project page
TrueSkill™ Ranking System | Project page
TrueMatch Matchmaking System | Project page
Grounded Conversational Characters | Project page

135 - Just Tech: Centering Community-Driven Innovation at the Margins Episode 3 with Dr. Sasha Costanza-Chock  Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

In “Just Tech: Centering Community-Driven Innovation at the Margins,” Senior Principal Researcher Mary L. Gray explores how technology and community intertwine and the role technology can play in supporting community-driven innovation and community-based organizations. Dr. Gray and her team are working to bring computer science, engineering, social science, and communities together to boost societal resilience in ongoing work with Project Resolve. She’ll talk with organizers, academics, technology leaders, and activists to understand how to develop tools and frameworks of support alongside members of these communities.

In this episode of the series, Dr. Gray and Dr. Sasha Costanza-Chock, scholar, designer, and activist, explore design justice, a framework for analyzing design’s power to perpetuate—or take down—structural inequality and a community of practice dedicated to creating a more equitable and sustainable world through inclusive, thoughtful, and respectful design processes. They also discuss how critical thinkers and makers from social movements have influenced technology design and science and technology studies (STS), how challenging the assumptions that drive who tech is built for will create better experiences for most of the planet, and how a deck of tarot-inspired cards is encouraging radically wonderful sociotechnical futures.

https://www.microsoft.com/research

134 - Just Tech: Centering Community-Driven Innovation at the Margins episode 2 with Dr. Tawanna Dillahunt, Zachary Rowe, and Joanna Velazquez Mar 31, 2022

Show notes

In “Just Tech: Centering Community-Driven Innovation at the Margins,” Senior Principal Researcher Mary Gray explores how technology and community intertwine and the role technology can play in supporting community-driven innovation and community-based organizations. Dr. Gray and her team are working to bring computer science, engineering, social science, and community together to boost societal resilience in ongoing work with Project Resolve. She’ll talk with organizers, academics, technology leaders, and activists to understand how to develop tools and frameworks of support alongside members of these communities. In this episode of the series, Dr. Gray talks with Dr. Tawanna Dillahunt, Associate Professor at University of Michigan’s School of Information, Zachary Rowe, Executive Director of Friends of Parkside, and Joanna Velazquez, Campaign Manager at Detroit Action. The guests share personal experiences where community and research collaborations have been most impactful in solving problems, talk about ways that participatory research can foster equal partnerships and fuel innovation, and offer perspectives on how researchers can best work with communities to work through problems at a local level. They also discuss the role that technology plays—and doesn’t play—in their work.

https://www.microsoft.com/research

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Microsoft Research Podcast

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected