Microsoft Research
6 published articles
Neuroscience
The neuroscience AI that finally explains what brain parts actually do
Generative causal testing (GCT) distills LLM-based brain-prediction models into concise verbal explanations, then uses an LLM to write stories that causally test those claims in fMRI. In experiments, GCT confirmed known selectivity, teased apart neighboring place-processing regions, and discovered new prefrontal micro-regions tuned to concepts like dialogue and measurements.
2026-07-11
Memory management
The 12,000-line secret behind Bing's speed: how mimalloc beat the allocator trade-off
Microsoft Research's mimalloc allocator uses thousands of per-page free lists and a clever page-stealing technique to achieve both high concurrency and low memory overhead, as detailed by the RiSE group in a new technical blog.
2026-07-10
AI Agents
Microsoft's bet on small models for agentic AI is about orchestration, not knowledge
Microsoft Research's MagenticLite project shows that small models can handle complex agentic tasks when orchestration, model design, and execution environment are codesigned. The release includes MagenticBrain, a 14B orchestrator, and Fara1.5, a computer-use model family that nearly doubles prior performance on web navigation benchmarks.
2026-07-09
Nature Neuroscience paper
Microsoft's new method turns black-box brain AI into readable theories
GCT translates uninterpretable LLM-based brain models into short phrases like 'food preparation' or 'location names,' then uses an LLM to write stories that causally test those explanations in real subjects. The method promises to bridge predictive AI and human-readable scientific theory.
2026-07-05
Open source
Microsoft just opened a codebase that kills the worst part of enterprise data work
Data Formulator 0.7 is an open-source AI system from Microsoft Research that helps enterprise teams connect fragmented data sources, prepare and analyze data with context-aware agents, and iteratively refine visualizations in a shared workspace, all without requiring SQL or programming skills.
2026-07-03
Memory Management
mimalloc, Microsoft's tiny memory workhorse, is quietly powering AI at scale
Microsoft Research's mimalloc memory allocator, designed for high concurrency and large memory scales, is quietly powering AI and cloud services at scale. Its thread-local design with thousands of free lists minimizes contention and delivers both speed and memory efficiency.
2026-07-03