Latest news with #Phi
Indian Express
11-07-2025
- Indian Express
Microsoft launches a new AI model, Phi-4-mini-flash-reasoning, with 10 times faster responses
Microsoft has unveiled its newest AI model in the Phi family, Phi-mini-flash-reasoning. The Phi-4-mini-flash-reasoning is an open, small language model (SLM) designed to retain high reasoning efficiency for edge devices, mobile applications, and other resource-constrained environments. The SLM is a compact AI model engineered for fast, on-device logical reasoning. 'This new model follows Phi-4-mini but is built on a new hybrid architecture that achieves up to 10 times higher throughput and a 2 to 3 times average reduction in latency, enabling significantly faster inference without sacrificing reasoning performance. Ready to power real-world solutions that demand efficiency and flexibility,' said Microsoft. The new model is inspired by its family member Phi-4-mini but is made for better performance. Phi-4-mini-flash-reasoning is built on a new hybrid architecture that provides a throughput 10 times faster than its predecessor. It also reduced the average latency by two or three times, which enables a significantly faster inference without sacrificing the reasoning. The model is available on the NVIDIA API Catalog, Azure AI Foundry, and Hugging Face today. For organised, mathematically oriented reasoning tasks, the 3.8 billion parameter open model is optimised on high-quality synthetic data while maintaining support for a 64k token context length. In contrast to previous Phi models, Phi-4-mini-flash-reasoning presents a new 'decoder-hybrid-decoder' architecture called SambaY, which combines a revolutionary Gated Memory Unit (GMU), sliding window attention, and state-space models (Mamba) to improve long-context performance and decrease decoding complexity. Microsoft claims that this configuration enables the model to add costly attention layers with lightweight GMUs while maintaining linear prefill calculation time. As a result, inference efficiency is much increased, which makes it suitable for usage on a single GPU or in latency-sensitive applications like adaptive learning apps and real-time teaching tools. Microsoft shared that the SLM Phi-4-mini-flash-reasoning outperforms a model twice its size in tasks such as AIME24/25 and Math500 by providing a faster response time on the VLLM inference framework. With safety features including supervised fine-tuning (SFT), direct preference optimization (DPO), and reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), the release is in line with Microsoft's larger campaign for ethical AI. The business points out that all Phi models adhere to its fundamental values of openness, confidentiality, and inclusivity.
The Review Geek
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
The Water Magician Episode 2 Preview: Release Date, Time & Where To Watch
The Water Magician Ryou thought reincarnation into the fantastical world of Phi would be a nice quiet existence learning to control water magic. Unfortunately, the reality is anything but a walk in the park! Dumped in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by monsters, Ryou's dream life quickly turns into a daily fight for survival. With a sharp mind, a positive outlook, and a mysterious trait called 'Eternal Youth,' he adapts fast. Before he knows it, two decades have flown by, and Ryou's climbed the ranks to become one of the most powerful magic users around. A chance encounter pulls him into a much bigger story though — one that looks set to reshape his fate and put him on the path to becoming the world's strongest water mage. If you've been following this anime, you may be curious to find out when the next episode is releasing. Well, wonder no more! Here is everything you need to know about episode 2 of The Water Magician, including the release date, time, and where you can watch this. Where Can I Watch The Water Magician? The Water Magician is airing in Japan on TBS and BS11. For those outside Asia, this one is also available to stream on Crunchyroll worldwide. The Water Magician Episode 2 Release Date The Water Magician Episode 2 will release on Friday 11th July in Japan at approximately 1:30am (JST). Of course, this means that for most of the world, this one will debut on Thursday 10th July at approximately 4pm (GMT) / 9am (PT). The Water Magician's episodes will drop in the native Japanese language with subtitles. Dubbing may well arrive later on down the line, but will largely be dependent on how popular this anime will be. How Many Episodes Will The Water Magician Have? It has been officially announced that The Water Magician will drop with a 12 episode season order, which is consistent with the other seasons. One episode will be releasing a week, while each chapter will run for around 23 minutes long. So with that in mind, we've got 10 more episodes left after this week's chapter. Is There A Trailer For The Water Magician? Yes! You can find a trailer for The Water Magician below: What do you hope to see as the series progresses? What's been your favourite moment of The Water Magician so far? Let us know in the comments below!
02-07-2025
- General
Ultranationalism Lingers Within Shintō's Shadowy Leadership
Shintō shrines are a familiar presence in every corner of Japan, yet few here are aware of the powerful national organization that oversees them—let alone its historical and ideological ties to State Shintō. The author sheds light on Jinja Honchō's origins and activities. Shintō, Japan's indigenous religious tradition, has no founder and no definitive scripture. It originated from an ancient animistic, polytheistic folk religion that deified mountains, megaliths, and other features and forces of nature. Animism and polytheism are by no means unique to Japan but can be found throughout the world. Hinduism, the indigenous Phi animism of Southeast Asia, and Native American shamanism are just a few examples. What is unusual about Shintō is the fact that it has a strong leadership organization despite being a natural religion with no codified system of beliefs. Organized and Natural Religions Natural religions have no identifiable founders and no definitive scriptures. Believers are free to commune with their divinities and practice their faith as they see fit, with no need for top-down supervision. Hinduism has upwards of 1.1 billion followers, but there is no overarching 'Hindu church' and no single entity with authority over matters of Hindu doctrine. That is typical of natural religions. By contrast, Catholicism, Christianity's largest church, has a hierarchical organization led by the pope and headquartered in the Vatican. It traces its origins to Jesus of Nazareth, and it has a holy scripture, the Bible. From the beginning, it has had a leader and a set of doctrines united by fairly clear-cut principles. The Vatican functions as a kind of executive body that prevents clergy members or followers from undermining the doctrinal discipline of the faith with their own individual interpretations of Christian theology. For much the same reason, each sect of Buddhism generally has a head temple that exerts authority over the others and functions as a unifying symbol of that sect. Shintō differs somewhat from the majority of natural religions in that it does in fact have a central executive body, known as Jinja Honchō (Association of Shintō Shrines). Headquartered in Tokyo's Shibuya, this 'comprehensive religious corporation' boasts a membership of more than 78,000 shrines all around Japan. It also oversees around 20,000 priests (kannushi), whom it groups into five ranks (jōkai, meikai, seikai, gonseikai, and chokkai). These priests take a portion of the offerings collected by their shrines and contribute it to the association, which has an annual operating budget of roughly ¥5 billion. Jinja Honchō also draws up and enforces various regulations governing the operation of member shrines, including rules—some carrying penalties—pertaining to the conduct of Shintō rites and the management of shrine finances. In short, it tells the shrines and priests what they may and may not do. Is a body like Jinja Honchō really necessary for a natural religion like Shintō? A good number of priests have asked this question and even called openly for the organization's elimination. But how did such a body ever come to wield control over a natural religion like Shintō? The answer lies in the politicization of Shintō during the modern era. The Shrines of State Shintō The religion that has exerted the greatest spiritual influence over the Japanese people during their long history is Buddhism. Entering Japan in the sixth century, Buddhism impressed the Japanese with its sophistication, having an actual founder (Siddhartha Gautama, or Sakyamuni Buddha) and systematic teachings codified in various scriptures, or sutras. The emperor himself converted to Buddhism, and thereafter the ruling class embraced the religion, erecting great temples in cities like Nara and Kyoto. Meanwhile, Buddhism and Shintō intermingled in a number of ways. The Chinese-derived architecture of Buddhist temples affected the construction of Shintō shrines, and Buddhist services are said to have influenced Shintō ceremonies. The Heian period (794–1185) saw the spread of honji suijaku, the theory that Shintō kami were incarnations of Buddhist deities. It became increasingly common for shrines to be incorporated inside temple complexes. It is said that by the Edo period (1603–1868), few people—especially among the general public—even distinguished between temples and shrines. But this syncretism between Shintō and Buddhism (shinbutsu shūgō) did not sit well with the architects of the Meiji Restoration (1868), who toppled the semi-feudal Tokugawa shogunate in order to establish a modern nation with the emperor as head of state. Japan's emperors trace their lineage back to the sun goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami, one of Shintō's most important kami, or deities. The architects of the restoration believed that establishing Shintō as the de facto state religion would solidify the emperor's status as the nation's supreme ruler. Thus was born the institution known as State Shintō. In 1868, the fledgling Meiji government moved to suppress Buddhism with an imperial order on the separation of the two religions (Shinbutsu Hanzen Rei). That set off an anti-Buddhist movement (haibutsu kishaku), which led to the destruction or closure of many temples. Of the Shintō shrines familiar to people nowadays, a large number were created artificially during the modern era with government backing. Under the Empire of Japan (1868–1945), shrines were treated as state facilities and priests as government officials. Fallout from the 'Shintō Directive' The environment surrounding Shintō changed abruptly with Japan's defeat in World War II. The US Occupation authorities, viewing Shintō as the wellspring of Japanese militarism, moved quickly to abolish State Shintō. In addition, the Constitution that they drafted, promulgated in 1946, explicitly mandated religious freedom and the separation of religion from government. Within the Shintō community, there was deep concern that many of Japan's shrines would not survive if suddenly deprived of government support and guidance. In 1946, leaders of that community created Jinja Honchō as a nongovernmental religious organization to replace such state organs as the Home Ministry's Bureau of Shrines and Institute of Divinities, which had been entrusted with shrine administration under the prewar government. Given this history, the upper echelon of shrine priests—the core of Jinja Honchō's leadership—have tended to view themselves as victims of the Occupation's coercive, misguided policies, which abruptly wrenched the priesthood out from under the government's wing. Of course, there is an element of truth to the accusation that the Occupation's religious policies were precipitate and high-handed. But some of those at the core of Jinja Honchō are driven by a deeper ideological aversion to the democratic reforms undertaken by the Occupation. They see it as their mission to overturn the postwar Constitution and restore the State Shintō of the prewar era. Indeed, over the years there has been a distinctly nationalist, reactionary tinge to the Jinja Honchō's activities. The organization's political arm, the Shintō Association of Spiritual Leadership (Shintō Seiji Renmei) has aggressively courted and supported far-right members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and in so doing has exerted a significant influence on Japanese politics. That said, today—80 years after the end of World War II—there are very few living priests who actually remember the situation before and shortly after the war. The status of shrines as private-sector religious corporations is more or less taken for granted, and the Shintō world has adapted to that reality. Few of the working priests with whom I have spoken seem to harbor strong political views. Where the future of Shintō is concerned, most seem to support the status quo. By the same token, however, one sees little evidence of the sort of ideals and aspirations that might help steer a new course for an organization born of resentment against the United States. Tanaka's Entrenched Leadership Over the past few years, serious rifts have emerged within Jinja Honchō's leadership. In the wake of scandals over real estate dealings, President Tanaka Tsunekiyo (age 81) has been the focus of mounting criticism, and at one time Tanaka himself spoke of stepping down. But in May this year, he was elected for the sixth time. If he serves out this last term, he will have reigned over the association for 18 years, despite the customary limit of two three-year terms. Of course, this situation has drawn a good deal of criticism, including talk of a 'Tanaka dictatorship.' But ultimately the situation reflects the state of the Shintō community, which is plagued by stagnation and a lack of new blood entering the priesthood. The individual shrines scattered about Japan are under no obligation to join Jinja Honchō. Fed up with the stultifying atmosphere that persists under the prevailing leadership, more and more shrines are opting to leave the association and strike out on their own. But such dispersion raises further questions about Shintō's long-term vitality and survival. What we need now is the collective will to forge a new understanding of the role of Shintō in contemporary Japanese society. (Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Headquarters of Jinja Honchō in Tokyo's Shibuya, April 2024. © Jiji.)
The Hindu
24-06-2025
- The Hindu
Microsoft introduces small language model Mu to change settings in Windows 11
Microsoft on Monday (June 23, 2025) unveiled its on-device small language model, Mu, that allows users to change settings through natural language queries. The company said Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel with Copilot+PCs can access Mu. The AI agent for Settings in Windows 11 was included in the existing search box for a seamless user experience, the company said. 'Mu is fully offloaded onto the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and responds at over 100 tokens per second, meeting the demanding UX requirements of the agent in Settings scenario,' Vivek Pradeep, VP, Distinguished Engineer at Windows Applied Sciences noted in a company blog. Trained over multiple phases using Nvidia's A100 GPUs on Azure Machine Learning, Mu followed a similar technique as Microsoft's previous small language model family, Phi. It was pre-trained on 'hundreds of billions of the highest-quality educational tokens, to learn language syntax, grammar, semantics and some world knowledge.' Mu was then distilled from the Phi models to enhance accuracy.
The Star
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Vietnam boosts rice trade through 2030 with new measures
Packaging rice at a milling facility in Tien Giang Province. — VNA/VNS TIEN GIANG: To enhance rice exports through 2030, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has rolled out a series of new measures focused on stricter oversight, faster implementation of the national export strategy, and stronger trade promotion efforts. These solutions were introduced by the MoIT's Export-Import Department during a conference held in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang on Tuesday (May 20). Authorities are set to expand negotiations and trade deals with international partners while dismantling the logistical and regulatory snarls that have plagued the sector. Local authorities were advised to restructure production and develop value chain linkages among organisations, cooperatives, and rice exporters. Enterprises and traders were encouraged to upgrade deep processing facilities and equipment to churn out rice up to the exacting standards of discerning markets. The goal is to diversify export markets, reducing dependence on traditional buyers to mitigate associated risks. Luu Van Phi, director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, highlighted Tien Giang's strategic strengths in rice production, citing its strategic location and robust transport infrastructure, including extensive road and waterway networks. The province boasts around 200 major rice milling and processing facilities capable of grinding out three million tonnes of rice annually and generating an estimated US$100 million in export revenue. To ensure the sector's long-term growth, Phi stressed the need for exporters and traders to develop raw material zones, invest in factory upgrades, modernise production lines, enhance processing capabilities, and strengthen financial capacity. Building brand identity and gaining consumer trust in both domestic and foreign markets is seen as a critical step forward. Current rice export regulations, he added, need to be revised to better keep pace with the industry's evolving needs. High volume, low value According to the department, Vietnam exported over 3.43 million tonnes of rice in the first four months of this year, raking in nearly $1.8 billion, a 8.1 per cent jump in volume but a 13.3 per cent dip in value from the same period last year. The Philippines, as ever, remains Vietnam's largest rice buyer, making up 43.3 per cent of the export volume and 45.5 per cent of the value. The average export price stood at $515 per tonne, down 19.8 per cent year-on-year. While this significant decline might seem concerning, it had been anticipated by industry experts and businesses, especially amid growing global supply. Many Vietnamese exporters attributed the sharp decline in rice prices to the global market adjustment that began in late 2024. The lifting of India's export ban significantly increased supply and exerted downward pressure on prices. As India steps up exports to reduce record-high stockpiles, the global rice market is expected to remain in a low-price cycle in the near term – a development that poses challenges for Vietnamese exporters in terms of maintaining both profit margins and market share. - Vietnam News/ANN
