27 May Phi Silica is Microsoft’s AI model for Windows developers

Phi Silica is Microsoft’s AI model for Windows developers

Abstract: Microsoft introduced Phi-Silica, a 3.3B parameter AI model optimized to run on Copilot + PCs NPUs. The target audience is Windows developers developing applications in Copilot+PC environment.

Developers in Copilot+PC ecosystem

AI revolution on PC has started with Microsoft’s announcement from May 20th 2024, so there are many interesting news about how the future will look like. Microsoft introduced the “Copilot+PC” platform, which is basically a hardware platform that will be able to execute Microsoft AI software Probably 2 years from now, one will not be able to buy a laptop that does not have a coprocessor for AI/Neural networks or a Microsoft product that is not AI-enabled.

In order to enable Windows developers to exploit new hardware platforms, Microsoft introduced Phi-Silica, a 3.3B parameter model optimized to run on Copilot + PCs NPUs.

Phi-Silica is a Small Language Model (SML), specifically designed for the Neural Processing Units (NPUs) in new Copilot+ PCs. Phi Silica is the smallest model in the Phi family SLM models, with 3.3 billion parameters. Phi-3-Silica runs directly on the Copilot+ PC without the need for an internet connection.

Developers can access Phi-Silica using Windows App SDK, and some C# examples are available at [2]. Phi-Silica can be used to develop applications for the Windows ecosystem.

Typical use cases are expected to be: Offline voice assistants with limited functionality; Text-to-speech conversion for visually impaired users; Real-time captioning for audio and video; Real-time language translation; Offline comprehension; Smart dictation and speech recognition.

References:

[1] Microsoft Introduces Phi Silica: A 3.3 Billion Parameter AI Model Transforming Efficiency and Performance in Personal Computing
https://www.marktechpost.com/2024/05/24/microsoft-introduces-phi-silica-a-3-3-billion-parameter-ai-model-transforming-efficiency-and-performance-in-personal-computing/

[2] Phi Silica in the Windows App SDK
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ai/apis/phi-silica

[3] Microsoft introduces Phi-Silica, a 3.3B parameter model made for Copilot+ PC NPUs
https://venturebeat.com/ai/microsoft-introduces-phi-silica-a-3-3b-parameter-model-made-for-copilot-pc-npus/

[4] Welcome to Microsoft Phi-3 Cookbook
https://github.com/microsoft/Phi-3CookBook

[5] What is Microsoft’s Phi-Silica: The Phi Family History
https://rupali-patil.medium.com/what-is-microsofts-phi-silica-the-phi-family-history-892d68daef29

[6] Tiny but mighty: The Phi-3 small language models with big potential
https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/ai/the-phi-3-small-language-models-with-big-potential/

[7] Microsoft debuts Phi Silica, AI specifically for Copilot+ PCs
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2340495/microsoft-debuts-phi-silica-ai-specifically-for-copilot-pcs.html