Learning from interaction with Microsoft Copilot (web)

AI systems like Bing and Microsoft Copilot (web) are as good as they are because they continuously learn and improve from people’s interactions. Since the early 2000s, user clicks on search result pages have fueled the continuous improvements of search engines. Recently, reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) brought step-function improvements to response quality of generative AI models. Bing has a rich history of success in improving its AI offerings by learning from user interactions. For example, Bing pioneered the […]

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Reading and Writing WAV Files in Python

There’s an abundance of third-party tools and libraries for manipulating and analyzing audio WAV files in Python. At the same time, the language ships with the little-known wave module in its standard library, offering a quick and straightforward way to read and write such files. Knowing Python’s wave module can help you dip your toes into digital audio processing. If topics like audio analysis, sound editing, or music synthesis get you excited, then you’re in for a treat, as you’re […]

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Finding Python Easter Eggs

In this Code Conversation, you’ll follow a chat between Philipp and Bartosz as they go on an Easter egg hunt. Along the way, you’ll: Learn about Easter egg hunt traditions Uncover the first Easter egg in software Explore Easter eggs in Python There won’t be many code examples in this Code Conversation, so you can lean back and join Philipp and Bartosz on their Easter egg hunt. What’s Included: Downloadable Resources:    

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The wrong way to speed up your code with Numba

If your NumPy-based code is too slow, you can sometimes use Numba to speed it up. Numba is a compiled language that uses the same syntax as Python, and it compiles at runtime, so it’s very easy to write. And because it re-implements a large part of the NumPy APIs, it can also easily be used with existing NumPy-based code. However, Numba’s NumPy support can be a trap: it can lead you to missing huge optimization opportunities by sticking to […]

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Unfolding Data Stories: From First Glance to In-Depth Analysis

The path to uncovering meaningful insights often starts with a single step: looking at the data before asking questions. This journey through the Ames Housing dataset is more than an exploration; it’s a narrative about the hidden stories within numbers, waiting to be told. Through a “Data First Approach,” we invite you to dive deep into the process of data-driven storytelling, where every visualization, every statistical test, and every hypothesis forms a part of a larger narrative. This blog post […]

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Abstracts: March 21, 2024

CHANG LIU: Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity to share our work.  HUIZINGA: So in a few sentences, tell us about the issue or problem your paper addresses and why people should care about this research.  LIU: Sure. Since this is an AI4Science work, let’s start from this perspective. About science, people always want to understand the properties of matters, such as why some substances can cure disease and why some materials are heavy or conductive. For a very […]

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Build a Python Turtle Game: Space Invaders Clone

In this tutorial, you’ll use Python’s turtle module to build a Space Invaders clone. The game Space Invaders doesn’t need any introduction. The original game was released in 1978 and is one of the most recognized video games of all time. It undeniably defined its own video game genre. In this tutorial, you’ll create a basic clone of this game. The turtle module you’ll use to build the game is part of Python’s standard library, and it enables you to […]

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Research Focus: Week of March 18, 2024

Welcome to Research Focus, a series of blog posts that highlights notable publications, events, code/datasets, new hires and other milestones from across the research community at Microsoft. NEW RESEARCH Fewer is More: Boosting LLM Reasoning with Reinforced Context Pruning Large language models (LLMs) have shown impressive capabilities, yet they still struggle with math reasoning. In a recent paper: Fewer is More: Boosting LLM Reasoning with Reinforced Context Pruning, researchers from Microsoft propose CoT-Influx, a  

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SQLite and SQLAlchemy in Python: Move Your Data Beyond Flat Files

All programs process data in one form or another, and many need to be able to save and retrieve that data from one invocation to the next. Python, SQLite, and SQLAlchemy give your programs database functionality, allowing you to store data in a single file without the need for a database server. You can achieve similar results using flat files in any number of formats, including CSV, JSON, XML, and even custom formats. Flat files are often human-readable text files—though […]

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