The US tech giant, Microsoft, has introduced its two new in-house artificial intelligence (AI) models: MAI-Voice-1 and MAI-1-preview. The firm took this initiative as it aims to rely less on its rivals for AI technology.
Microsoft describes the first model, MAI-Voice-1, in its official blog as an expressive system capable of generating natural speech. It is integrated into Copilot Daily, Podcasts, and a new Copilot Labs experience, supporting both single and multi-speaker scenarios.
The second model, MAI-1-preview, is being tested publicly on LMArena, a site for evaluating models. Microsoft says it’s a fully trained base model for text tasks in Copilot. The firm stated that the model is set to roll out in the next few months and was built using about 15,000 Nvidia H-100 GPUs.
The company has been working on its AI skills since last year and has stated that it now has a competent team and the right tools to do this. The project got a boost when they hired Mustafa Suleyman, who helped start DeepMind and Inflection AI, last year, to lead Microsoft AI.
He has been working with Microsoft to improve consumer AI products like Copilot and support research. In January, the firm further strengthened its expertise by adding a new AI engineering team under the leadership of Jay Parikh, a former Meta engineering leader.
Speaking about the new models in a Semafor interview, Suleyman explained that Microsoft used open-source methods to make the models efficient with fewer resources. He stressed picking the best data to avoid wasting power on useless parts.
Microsoft’s Previous Collaborations to Enhance Its AI
On May 12, 2025, OpenAI and Microsoft had reportedly reworked their long-standing partnership, potentially paving the way for OpenAI’s initial public offering (IPO). The negotiations aimed to align Microsoft’s investment with OpenAI’s plans to restructure.
Moreover, on February 2, the firm collaborated with Cricket Australia to make use of generative AI (GenAI) to enhance the experience of cricket fans in the live match through the Cricket Australia Live app.
Also Read: Microsoft Rolls Out GPT-5 Across Copilot and Azure Today
