Microsoft Research Forum is a virtual series highlighting purposeful research and its real-world impact, from fundamental exploration to advancing AI responsibly, scaling innovation through products and open source, and driving positive change for society.

Up next: Season 2 | Episode 4

Thursday, May 14, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time

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Agenda

Weili Shi | Microsoft Research Forum
Weili Shi
Senior Creative Technologist
Microsoft Research AI Frontiers
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Harkirat Behl
Principal Researcher
Microsoft Research AI Frontiers
Mozannar Hussein | Microsoft Research Forum
Hussein Mozannar
Microsoft Research AI Frontiers

TALK | NEW ADVANCEMENT OUT OF THE LAB

New release and demo from the Microsoft Research AI Frontiers lab

Abstract to come.

Peli de Halleux | Microsoft Research Forum
Peli de Halleux
Agentic Engineer
Microsoft Research Redmond

TALK | NEW ADVANCEMENT OUT OF THE LAB

Introducing GitHub Agentic Workflows: AI that runs your repo

What if your repo could run itself? GitHub Agentic Workflows bring AI agents directly into repository automation, enabling tasks to run end-to-end inside GitHub Actions. With built-in guardrails and Microsoft-hosted models on Azure, this system introduces a safe, scalable way to automate development workflows using intent-driven AI.

Amit Sharma | Microsoft Research Forum
Amit Sharma
Principal Researcher
Microsoft Research India

TALK | OPEN RESEARCH EXPLORATION

Introducing Interwhen: Steering reasoning agents with real-time verification

What if AI agents could check their work as they go? This verification method extracts verifiable properties from natural language and evaluates them using symbolic or model-based verifiers. Interwhen, a new open-source library, enables real-time verification of each step, helping agents act more safely and reliably in complex, real-world tasks.

Carles Domingo Enrich | Microsoft Research Forum
Carles Domingo-Enrich
Senior Researcher
Microsoft Research New England

TALK | MISSION ON AI

New fine-tuning of language models: Match meaning, not tokens

Language models are usually trained to predict the next word, but that does not always lead to the best overall answers. We introduce energy-based fine-tuning, a new method that trains models to produce better full responses, leading to stronger results without the need for complex reward models or verifiers.

David Rothschild | Microsoft Research Forum
David Rothschild
Economist
Microsoft Research New York City

TALK | AI FOR ALL

Guiding the AI disruption to the Good Place

The true impact of AI does not lie in how well it takes tests or surfs the web, but in how effectively it teaches, coordinates, and operates in a web built for agents rather than humans. We anticipate the augmentation of workflows for AI, reduced communication frictions, and the rise of AI-powered intermediaries that better align markets with human goals. Our research examines how to guide this transition toward open, innovation-driven ecosystems, so that AI’s inevitable advance delivers broad-based welfare gains rather than locking society into narrow, walled gardens.

Yash Lara | Microsoft Research Forum
Yash Lara
Senior Program Manager Lead
Microsoft Research Redmond

Host

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