Model Mondays S2E05: Fine Tuning & Distillation

Model Mondays S2E05: Fine Tuning & Distillation
Model customization is critical to ensuring the model is optimized for your application requirements. Join us as we talk to Dave Voutila about fine-tuning Azure OpenAI models, using distillation techniques for efficient knowledge transfer, and other best practices in Azure AI Foundry.

Register:
Livestreamed: Jul 14 / https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/26109/
Discord AMA: Jul 18 / https://discord.gg/azureaifoundry?event=1382862245721014476

Catch-up After:
Livestream Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSNGzBB20aw
AMA Transcript: https://github.com/orgs/azure-ai-foundry/discussions/91
AMA Schedule: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum

About Model Mondays:
GitHub: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/
Livestream: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/rsvp
Discord: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord

Transcript

1. Dave Voutila Principal PM / Core AI @Microsoft Fine-Tuning & Distillation MODEL MONDAYS S2:E05 Models Hosted By: Lee Stott JUL 14, 2025 · 1:30-2:00 PM ET
2. Livestream (Mon) · AMA (Fri) https://aka.ms/model-Mondays/rsvp Model Mondays JUN 2025 – SEP 2025
3. Sharmila Chockalingam Senior PMM, Azure AI Weekly Highlights WHAT’S NEW IN AZURE |AI FOUNDRY THIS WEEK?
4. ❶ · Try · Deep Research Deep Research in Foundry Agent Service An API and SDK offering of OpenAI's agentic research on Azure Join: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord View: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum
5. ❷ · Try · Phi-4-Mini-Flash- Reasoning Phi-4-mini-flash-reasoning Bringing advanced reasoning capabilities to edge devices where compute, latency and memory are highly constrained . Join: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord View: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum
6. ❸ · Try · Agentic Retrieval Join: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord View: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum Agentic Retrieval in AI Search A multiturn query engine that plans and runs its own retrieval strategy for improved answer relevance
7. ❹ · Try · Azure Cosmos DB Join: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord View: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum Azure Cosmos DB in Azure AI Foundry Build enterprise-ready agentic applications using your own data .
8. ❺ · Register · Webinar Webinar Microsoft, Cohere and Draftwise webinar to explore legal contracting with AI Join: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/discord View: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum
9. Lee Stott Principal AI Advocate Lead, Microsoft Weekly Spotlight HOSTED BY
10. Dave Voutila Principal PM / Core AI @Microsoft Fine-Tuning & Distillation MODEL MONDAYS S2:E05 Models Hosted By: Lee Stott JUL 14, 2025 · 1:30-2:00 PM ET
11. ❶ · Download · the Code Clone the Demo Repo Walk through a complete, end-to-end model distillation with AI Foundry. Clone: https://github.com/voutilad/distilling-sarcasm View: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum Slides Available in Repo
12. ❷ · Discover · Global Training & Developer Tier Read the public preview announcement from //Build 2025 Learn how to fine tune in your favorite AI Foundry region Discover: Global Training & Developer Tier View: https://aka.ms/Build25/FTGlobalAndDev
13. ❸ · Watch · Build Session Grab the slides. Follow along or refresh your memory on what Distillation entails. View: https://build.microsoft.com/sessions/BRK150
14. ❹ · Start · Fine Tuning Get started Fine Tuning OpenAI Models Take a guided tour of fine tuning GPT-4.1 Start: Fine Tuning View: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/openai/how-to/fine-tuning
15. ❺ · Explore · Code Samples Model Customization Resources from Build Explore the Demos & Samples on your own. And check out the related sessions! Topic: Model Customization View: https://github.com/azure-ai-foundry/build-2025-demos/
16. Speaker(s) Role / Affiliation Customer Stories MODEL MONDAYS S2:E-- Industry MMM DD, 2025 · 1:30-2:00 PM ET https://aka.ms/model-mondays/rsvp
17. ❶ · Customer · Scenario What link is the QR Code pointing to Takeaway message with more context for what you learn from that link Action: YOUR CTA HERE View: https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum
18. Principal PM, Core AI @Microsoft Research & Innovation MODEL MONDAYS S2:E06 Saumil Shrivastava Product Manager Core AI @Microsoft SeokJin Han Research Hosted By: Kinfey Lo JUL 21, 2025 · 1:30-2:00 PM ET
19. Foundry Friday AMA FINE TUNING & DISTILLATION https://aka.ms/model-mondays/forum JUL 18, 2025 · 1:30-2:00 PM ET AZURE AI FOUNDRY DISCORD Dave Voutila Principal PM / Core AI @Microsoft Models
20. Fri 1:30pm ET Join The Discord https://aka.ms/model-mondays/Discord Links To Resources Summary of AMA https://aka.ms/model-mondays/Forum #ModelMondays WATCH LIVE ON MONDAY FIND RECAPS ON FORUM JOIN AMA ON FRIDAY Mon 1:30pm ET Register Here https://aka.ms/model-mondays/RSVP