AI does better when it acknowledges it needs clarification; Improving robot performance on vision-language tasks; How we learn from AI’s failures; Improving AI tutoring; Understanding our sense of smell; More efficient KV-cache memory storage msft.it/6019aSVIP

StudentSim is a research system for evaluating and improving AI tutoring tools before they are tested with learners. It models how individuals may engage with tutors, giving feedback to improve tutor performance across subjects like chess, writing, and mathematics: msft.it/6013aS3JF

The most important AI failures may not be the obvious ones. Microsoft Partner Research Manager Jennifer Neville explains to host Chad Atalla why “surprising failures” can reveal where human expectations about intelligence diverge from how AI systems actually work. msft.it/6017aU8r7

Training AI agents with reinforcement learning can be challenging because their tools, context, and decision-making are managed by complex frameworks. Agent Lightning connects existing agents to RL training, making it easier to improve them without rebuilding them.: msft.it/6019aokV1

Progress can be a winding road. Jennifer Neville discusses spinning her research wheels, taking a multiturn path to computer science, and pushing today’s AI systems with more practical evaluations. Catch the latest Microsoft Research Podcast episode.: msft.it/6183aW0lD

Extreme space-weather events can damage power systems on Earth and degrade GPS accuracy and satellite operations. A new machine learning system can predict where damage is likely to occur 30-60 minutes before a storm arrives: msft.it/6019aYXwh

Biology doesn't operate in silos, and neither should the AI representation of it. Quine is an early-stage research effort to create a multimodal world model of biology. By connecting insights across biological scales and modalities, Quine helps scientists computationally search a space far larger than intuition allows and prioritize hypotheses before they reach the lab. Experimental results provide important feedback, helping researchers sharpen future research directions. msft.it/6014acaRn

Since launching a year ago, the Microsoft Research Asia — Singapore lab has established a strong foundation, deepened collaboration across government, academia, and industry, and explored how frontier AI research can create real-world value: msft.it/6019acwE5

Securing data when trusted hardware is compromised; monitoring underwater recordings to protect endangered whales; Living Library enables conversations with historical figures; AI builders should listen to the young people who will ultimately use it. msft.it/6013acHnt

Robots are getting smarter, but how can their hardware match that growth? New Microsoft Research findings show that moving AI inference beyond the robot can improve task success, boost efficiency, and support more advanced physical AI workloads. msft.it/6014agepg

Custom-made molecules are advancing medicine, materials, and agriculture, but producing them is slow and expensive. A new Nature paper highlights RetroChimera, a predictive model that helps accelerate chemical synthesis, helping researchers explore a wide range of molecules.: msft.it/6012a5Ogy

A look at how coding agents behave at scale; evaluating AI models that find lymphoma lesions in PET/CT scans; understanding AI chatbot dependence; and advancing large-scale decision-making systems. Dive into the latest issue of Research Focus.: msft.it/6016abyrY

How is AI reshaping the way we work? Join researchers, builders, and practitioners at The New Future of Work Summit on Sept. 14 for practical workshops, live demos, and research-backed insights on AI and agents. Free and open to all. Register: msft.it/6013akn9U

Curious about what a future in research could look like? The Microsoft Research Undergrad Internship Program offers hands-on research experience, mentorship, and a chance to explore advanced study. Rising juniors and seniors can apply for 12-week internships in Redmond, NYC, or New England. Apply by October 5: msft.it/6014aXVWM

Where can curiosity take a research career? Undergraduate research intern Matheus Kunzler Maldaner explores agentic systems and finds more than he expected in this first episode of our series, Research | Start Here: Inside the Internship. See where research can start ▶️

What if pathology foundation models could do more with less? GigaPath-Flash and GigaTIME-Flash cut computational demands while maintaining strong performance, opening the door to larger studies and broader exploration. msft.it/6012arcfr