Microsoft’s Latest Move in AI Development
At the recent Ignite 2023 conference, Microsoft unveiled a new tool that aims to bring generative AI experiences from the cloud to Windows devices. The tool, called Windows AI Studio, is a successor of sorts to the defunct AI Platform for Windows developers.
What is Windows AI Studio?
Windows AI Studio is a comprehensive tool that brings together AI tools and a catalog of generative AI models that developers can fine-tune, customize, and deploy for local, offline use in their Windows apps. This tool doesn’t force developers to deploy models offline or in the cloud; instead, it gives them options to run models locally or remotely in datacenters.
Interview with Logan Iyer
In an email interview with TechCrunch, Logan Iyer, a distinguished engineer in Microsoft’s Windows systems and silicon integration group, explained the purpose of Windows AI Studio. "Given the pace of AI, we want to help developers quickly jumpstart AI development locally on Windows by giving them the tools and resources they need," he said.
"Our priority is to offer developers these tools as soon as they’re available."
Model Catalog and Fine-Tuning
Windows AI Studio’s model catalog draws on models from Microsoft as well as third-party repositories like Hugging Face’s. Using the new experience, developers can select, configure, fine-tune, and test their models for an app or project locally, using their own data sets, before deciding where to run those models.
"We’re bringing together cutting-edge tools and a model catalog with models that we’ve tested and, in some cases, optimized for Windows so developers can jump-start AI development locally on Windows," Iyer said.
"Today, developers lack a guided step-by-step interface to fine-tune their models — which is a blocker in deploying generative AI faster in their apps. Windows AI Studio will offer this guided interface so developers can focus on coding while we do the heavy lifting and support them in deploying gen AI features into their apps."
Prompt Flow Feature
Soon, Windows AI Studio will be upgraded with a feature called prompt flow that’ll let developers have their apps automatically switch when necessary between smaller, faster models running on a local machine to larger, more capable cloud-hosed models.
Supported Hardware
On supported hardware — namely hardware with either a dedicated AI accelerator chip or GPU — Windows AI Studio will gain more capable local models including Meta’s text-generating Llama 2 (thanks to a recently expanded partnership with Meta) and Stability AI’s text-to-image model Stable Diffusion XL.
Extension for VS Code
Microsoft also plans to launch Windows AI Studio as an extension for VS Code, its open-source code editor. This will give developers greater choice to either run their models on the cloud or locally on Windows to meet their needs.
Benefits of Windows AI Studio
Given the challenges around securing the necessary cloud resources to run AI models at scale these days, any tool that makes deploying models locally is sure to be welcome news to developers. The question is just how easy Windows AI Studio makes running a performant model locally.
Conclusion
Microsoft’s push for generative AI experiences on Windows devices is an exciting development in the world of artificial intelligence. With the release of Windows AI Studio, Microsoft aims to give developers the tools and resources they need to quickly jumpstart AI development locally on Windows.
Windows AI Studio offers a comprehensive tool that brings together AI tools and a catalog of generative AI models that developers can fine-tune, customize, and deploy for local, offline use in their Windows apps. With its guided interface and prompt flow feature, Windows AI Studio promises to make deploying gen AI features faster and easier than ever before.
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