More exciting news from @MicrosoftAI: MAI-Image-2.6 is #2# in Text-to-Image Arena with 1,331 pts, and joins the Pareto frontier! At $38.90 per 1K output images (~$0.039/image), it outperforms Grok Imagine Image 2.0 while also costing less. MAI-Image-2.6 ranks #2# in: - Product, Branding & Commercial Design - 3D Imaging & Modeling - Cartoon, Anime & Fantasy - Art - Text Rendering It also ranks #3# in Portraits and Photorealistic & Cinematic Imagery. Try it in Direct Mode, or vote in Battle Mode to help shape the live leaderboard.

Microsoft's MAI-Image-2.6-Flash takes #3# on the Artificial Analysis Image Editing Leaderboard, a significant jump over the previous generation’s Flash variant and joining MAI-Image-2.6 on the Pareto frontier for quality vs price MAI-Image-2.6-Flash is an optimized version of MAI-Image-2.6, Microsoft AI's flagship image model, released today on Microsoft Foundry alongside MAI-Image-2.6. Like the rest of the family, it handles both text to image generation and image editing. In the Artificial Analysis Image Arena, MAI-Image-2.6-Flash lands at #3# in Image Editing, behind only Microsoft's own MAI-Image-2.6 and OpenAI's GPT Image 2 (high) and narrowly ahead of Google's Nano Banana 2. In Text to Image it takes #8#, within 5 Elo points of MAI-Image-2.5 and narrowly ahead of Google's Nano Banana Pro. MAI-Image-2.6-Flash is a large step up on MAI-Image-2.5-Flash at the same price: it sits 69 Elo points higher in Text to Image (#16# to #8#) and 34 Elo points higher in Image Editing (#12# to #3#). MAI-Image-2.6 and MAI-Image-2.6-Flash are available today on Microsoft Foundry. Congratulations to @MicrosoftAI on the release! See below for our analysis and example outputs of MAI-Image-2.6-Flash in the Artificial Analysis Image Arena 🧵

Thanks for the support @AndrewYNg! Completely agree, faster token generation will become increasingly important as a greater proportion of output tokens are consumed by models, such as in multi-step agentic workflows, rather than being read by people.

Introducing Ode Poetry. Ode is a wonderful poetry pharmacy that reads you a poem for the moment you’re in. Just tell Ode what you're feeling, and it uses Microsoft AI audio models to connect you with the same work that poetry expert William Sieghart would recommend. The best technology doesn't replace human creativity, it helps more people experience it. Super proud of the team for making this truly humanist tool. More in the blog:

Say how you feel. Get a poem that meets you there. Ode connects you with a poem for your moment. Guided by William Sieghart. Powered by Microsoft AI models. Try it out here:

On the cover of @Nature Health: @MicrosoftAI analyzed 500K+ de-identified Copilot conversations and found health is a top reason people turn to AI — with 1 in 7 personal health queries asked on behalf of someone else #DigitalHealth# #AI#

AI is ultimately about people. Understanding every voice, building with empathy, and taking a responsible approach aren't side goals. They're part of the work itself. Meet some of the people behind MAI. Watch the full video here:

Thrilled to announce by popular demand MAI-Code-1-Flash is now generally available for GitHub Copilot Business and GitHub Copilot Enterprise - fast, efficient, and custom designed to help you build more for less on @github

We shipped a new coding model built for your everyday dev work. MAI-Code-1-Flash is fast, token-efficient, and trained inside real GitHub Copilot environments. It plans, builds, runs, and tests. All from Copilot Chat in VS Code. Watch it go from a single frost banner to a full seasonal snapshot with passing tests. In minutes. For cents. ▶️

Microsoft's MAI-Image-2.5 ranks #2# in Text to Image and #3# in Image Editing in the Artificial Analysis Image Arena, behind only OpenAI's image models The latest addition to the MAI Image family is capable of handling both text to image generation and image editing, up to a maximum output resolution of roughly 1MP at flexible aspect ratios with a 32K token context. MAI-Image-2.5 is one of the strongest image models we have tested, ranking #2# in Text to Image behind only OpenAI's GPT Image 2. Its Image Editing capabilities rank at #3# on our leaderboard, ranking just behind OpenAI’s image models, with performance comparable to Google’s Nano Banana 2. MAI-Image-2.5-Flash, the faster, lower-cost variant, lands at #8# in Text to Image and #6# in Image Editing. MAI-Image-2.5 is priced at $48 per 1k images and MAI-Image-2.5-Flash at $20 per 1k images on the Foundry API. Both are also available in the MAI Playground, and MAI-Image-2.5 is available to users in PowerPoint and OneDrive. Congratulations to @MicrosoftAI on the release! See below for comparisons between MAI-Image-2.5 and other leading models in the Artificial Analysis Image Arena 🧵

Great voice experiences are about more than pronunciation. Tone, emotion, and delivery are what make speech feel natural. See how MAI-Voice-2 brings expressive speech generation to 15 languages. Try it here:

What happens when speech, transcription, and coding models work together? This prototype demo, built using a VS Code fork, showcases how MAI-Transcribe, MAI-Voice, and MAI-Code-1-Flash can work together in a unified workflow to transform spoken instructions into working code.

Behind every model is a team dedicated to solving difficult challenges, exploring new ideas, and continuously pushing technology forward. Meet some of the people behind Microsoft AI. Watch the full video here:

What does it take to build coding models that meet developers where they work? Go behind the scenes with Microsoft AI to explore how we build and optimize code. From training and evaluation to performance, safety, and real-world developer feedback.

MAI-Code-1-Flash is now rolled out to 100% of GitHub Copilot Free, Education, Pro, Pro+, and Max subscribers in VS Code. Copilot CLI roll out and Enterprise/Business preview on its way. Give it a try and let us know what you think!