All Things Microsoft AI

On April 23, 2025, Rachel Kang presented " Hybrid Web and Desktop apps with .NET MAUI and Blazor " to the Cleveland C# User Group . The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg3XTkctzoE Although this presentation was targeted to Software developers, the technology itself offers several advantages to businesses that managers and executives need to consider.   Businesses need applications that are versatile, scalable, and cost-effective. Enter .NET MAUI and Blazor, a powerful combination that enables developers to build hybrid applications that seamlessly run on both web and desktop platforms. This approach offers numerous advantages to businesses looking to optimize their software solutions.   1. Cross-Platform Efficiency One of the biggest advantages of using .NET MAUI and Blazor is the ability to write code once and deploy it across multiple platforms. Businesses no longer need separate teams for web and desktop development—th...

In Azure, a tenant refers to a dedicated instance of Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) that an organization receives when signing up for a Microsoft cloud service like Azure, Microsoft 365, or Dynamics 365.   Azure Tenant Identity Management : A tenant provides a centralized identity system for managing users, groups, and applications. Subscription Association : A tenant can own one or multiple Azure subscriptions , but each subscription belongs to only one tenant. Security & Access Control : Tenants enable role-based access control (RBAC) and authentication across Azure services. Domain Integration : Organizations can associate custom domains with their tenant for branding and authentication Dedicated: a Tenant is a dedicated instance of Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) that an organization receives when signing up for a Microsoft cloud service. Boundary: It acts as a boundary for identity management, subscriptions, an...

This article explains the basic difference between using Azure AI Language Service compared to an LLM (Large Language Model) with a custom prompt.   Overview Using Language Service with Azure Language Studio, the model can be setup to return the user’s intention based on utterances and entities used for training.  It will then return a JSON result set as seen below.       JSON Result Returned:   {     "query": "I want to buy a car\n",     "prediction": {         "topIntent": "BuyCar",         "projectKind": "Conversation",         "intents": [             {                 ...

User Groups Apr 10: Roanoke Valley .NET User Group Apr 17: GLUG.NET Apr 23: Cleveland C# User Group   Online Apr 11: Global AI Bootcamp 2025 - Cleveland May 2: StirTrek Aug 1: Cincy Deliver  

  DirectML (Direct Machine Learning) is a low-level API for machine learning.  It was developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows AI platform. DirectML integrates with DirectX 12 compatible hardware. It’s designed to provide hardware-accelerated machine learning capabilities across a wide range of GPUs, not tied to any specific vendor.  DirectML is a low-level hardware abstraction layer that enables machine learning workloads on any DirectX 12 compatible GPU.   ML.NET (Machine Learning .NET) is an open source and cross-platform framework also developed by Microsoft.  It provides the capability to train and build custom machine learning models using C# or F#. ML.NET also provides model building capabilities using various features: AutoML (automated machine learning) that automatically attempts various algorithms to find the best fit for a given set of data ML.NET CLI (Command Line Interface) for building models through the command li...

Phi models are Small Language Models (SLM) developed by Microsoft.  They’re designed to handle various tasks, including text, image, and speech processing, while requiring less computing power.  The models are open-source, available with the MIT License.   The diagram below shows the evolution and capabilities of various Phi models.        With the recent release of Phi-4 Multimodal model, more features are now available. In addition, here are some of its most notable features: 1. Multimodal Data Processing: Phi-4 Multimodal excels at handling text, images, and speech at the same time. This means it can interpret and generate content across different formats, making it incredibly versatile for various applications. 2. Efficient Performance: Despite its advanced capabilities, Phi-4 Multimodal is designed to be highly efficient. It requires significantly less computing power compared to larger AI systems, making it accessib...

Question:  I need to know if data entered and used in the $30 Copilot service in M365 is secured in the same way that data in the $0 M365 Copilot Chat. I cannot find a reference that explains this. I want to know if my users can use both without the risk of having our content exposed outside of our tenant.   Answer : Yes, both the $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot service and the $0 Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat offer the same level of data security and privacy protections. Both services are covered by the same enterprise data protection (EDP) controls and commitments under the Data Protection Addendum (DPA) and Product Terms. Your data is protected with encryption at rest and in transit. Also, Microsoft does not use your data to train foundation models.  In a nutshell, your data remains yours and yours alone.  For additional references, see the following links: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/privacy-and-protections https://learn.microsoft.com/en...