EU to indefinitely freeze Russian assets
The European Union has announced plans to indefinitely freeze Russian assets held within the bloc, in a move aimed at ensuring up to $246 billion in R...
Microsoft is working on a new generation of in-house artificial intelligence reasoning models designed to rival those from OpenAI, according to a report by The Information.
The company, which has been a major backer of OpenAI, is exploring options to reduce its dependence on external AI technology and may eventually offer these models to developers via an application programming interface.
The report indicates that Microsoft is testing models from xAI, Meta, and DeepSeek as potential replacements for the technology currently powering its Microsoft 365 Copilot. Reuters reported in December that Microsoft had been actively integrating both internal and third-party AI models into Copilot to diversify its technological foundation and lower costs, given that the service was originally built on OpenAI's GPT-4.
Microsoft’s AI division, led by Mustafa Suleyman, has reportedly completed training a family of models internally known as MAI. These models are said to perform nearly as well as leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic on standard benchmarks. In addition, Suleyman’s team is developing reasoning models that use chain-of-thought techniques—methods that generate answers through intermediate reasoning steps—to directly compete with similar models from OpenAI.
Suleyman’s team is already experimenting with replacing OpenAI’s models in Copilot with the newly developed MAI models, which are significantly larger than an earlier series known as Phi. Microsoft is considering a release of these models later this year in the form of an API, which would enable external developers to integrate the advanced AI reasoning capabilities into their own applications.
Neither Microsoft nor OpenAI immediately responded to requests for comment.
Japan has lifted a tsunami advisory issued after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 hit the country's northeastern region on Friday (12 December), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. The JMA had earlier put the earthquake's preliminary magnitude at 6.7.
The United States issued new sanctions targeting Venezuela on Thursday, imposing curbs on three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro's wife, as well as six crude oil tankers and shipping companies linked to them, as Washington ramps up pressure on Caracas.
Iran is preparing to host a multilateral regional meeting next week in a bid to mediate between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Kyiv has escalated its naval campaign against Moscow’s economic lifelines, claiming a successful strike on a vessel suspected of skirting international sanctions within the Black Sea.
An extratropical cyclone has caused widespread disruption across Brazil’s São Paulo state, with powerful winds toppling trees and power lines, blocking streets and leaving large parts of the region without electricity.
The European Union has announced plans to indefinitely freeze Russian assets held within the bloc, in a move aimed at ensuring up to $246 billion in Russian funds remain in EU jurisdictions, officials said on Friday.
Sudan is facing a record-breaking internal displacement crisis as fighting between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continues, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Friday.
Are Europe’s defence structures prepared to meet evolving threats from Russia? Recent remarks by NATO and intelligence officials have highlighted gaps that could shape European security over the next five years.
The Ashgabat forum in Turkmenistan brought together Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, raising questions about whether Russia remains connected to regional partners despite Western sanctions.
A bulk carrier owned by a Turkish company was struck during a Russian attack on Ukraine’s southern coast on Friday.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment