Set Up Plaud Note Pro with Microsoft Foundry
Prerequisites Riffado, up and running: follow the setup guide in the official Riffado repository to get it going with Docker Compose. A Microsoft Foundry (formerly Azure AI Foundry) resource, with the models you want deployed; in my case, whisper for transcription and o3-mini for summaries. A Plaud device, or any audio recordings you can import into Riffado. Once Riffado is up, head to the Settings page > Providers > Add Provider, and select Custom. This is where the Azure details will go. Why "OpenAI-compatible" isn’t one thing on Microsoft Foundry Azure AI Foundry exposes two different API surfaces on the same resource, and which one serves your model depends on the model: Surface Path shape Serves OpenAI-compatible? v1 route /openai/v1/… gpt-4o-transcribe, gpt-4o-mini-transcribe, chat models, embeddings Yes: Bearer auth, model in the body, no api-version needed Classic route /openai/deployments/{name}/… Whisper (and other legacy audio) No: deployment name lives in the URL, and ?api-version= is mandatory A generic OpenAI client (Riffado's included) can only speak the first dialect. It has nowhere to put a deployment name in the path and no way to append a query parameter. That single fact drives everything below. Part 1 - Transcription Whisper and the DeploymentNotFound mystery Symptom My very first transcription attempt in Riffado failed with 404 Resource not found. Off to a flying start. Configured provider: base URL https://<resource>.services.ai.azure.com, model whisper. Dead end #1: the missing path The first bug was mine: the base URL had no path. Riffado's OpenAI client appends /audio/transcriptions to whatever you give it, so requests were hitting https://<resource>…/audio/transcriptions, a path that doesn't exist on the resource at all. Fixing the base URL to end in /openai/v1 got us to a more interesting error: POST /openai/v1/audio/transcriptions · model=whisper {"error":{"code":"DeploymentNotFound","message":"The API deployment for this resource does not exist. If you created the deployment within the last 5 minutes, please wait a moment and try again."}} Dead end #2: catalog ≠ deployment Worth checking before anything else: selecting a model in the Foundry catalog is not deploying it. GET /openai/v1/models lists everything you could deploy; only Deployments → Deploy model creates an endpoint that answers. If you get DeploymentNotFound, first confirm a deployment actually exists (the listing below requires only the API key): enumerate real deployments (classic control-plane, key auth) curl -s -H "api-key: $KEY" \ "https://<resource>.openai.azure.com/openai/deployments?api-version=2023-03-15-preview" # → {"data":[{"id":"whisper","model":"whisper","status":"succeeded",…}]} The actual cause Here is the part that nearly drove me mad: the deployment existed and was succeeded, yet the v1 route still said DeploymentNotFound. Because Whisper deployments are not served on the v1 route at all. They only answer on the classic path. Verified side by side with the same tiny WAV file: Request Result POST /openai/v1/audio/transcriptions · model=whisper · Bearer 404 DeploymentNotFound POST /openai/deployments/whisper/audio/transcriptions?api-version=2024-06-01 · Bearer 200 {"text":"you"} Same classic path, without ?api-version= 404 Resource not found Three constraints, then: Whisper needs the classic path; the classic path needs api-version; Riffado can send neither. One piece of good news hiding in the table: the classic route accepts Authorization: Bearer, not just Azure's api-key header, so the shim doesn't have to touch auth at all. The fix: a Caddy shim Drop a stock caddy:2-alpine container into the Compose network. Riffado points at it as if it were OpenAI; the shim rewrites the path, injects api-version, and proxies to Azure. The Bearer header passes through untouched. azure-shim.Caddyfile { admin off auto_https off } :80 { @transcribe path /v1/audio/transcriptions /audio/transcriptions handle @transcribe { rewrite * /openai/deployments/whisper/audio/transcriptions?api-version=2024-06-01 reverse_proxy https://<resource>.services.ai.azure.com { header_up Host <resource>.services.ai.azure.com } } handle { respond "azure-shim ok" 200 } } docker-compose.yml (added service) azure-shim: image: caddy:2-alpine restart: unless-stopped volumes: - ./azure-shim.Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro Riffado's provider settings become: Field Value Base URL http://azure-shim/v1 Model whisper (must equal the deployment name) API key the Azure resource key (forwarded as Bearer) Verified From inside the Riffado container: POST http://azure-shim/v1/audio/transcriptions → 200 {"text":"…"}. Transcription works end-to-end in the UI. Part 2 · Summaries & titles o3-mini and the empty answer Symptom The summary button showed "An unexpected error occurred." The container logs were more honest: riffado-app logs Error generating title: TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'C.choices[0]') Riffado calls chat/completions and reads choices[0] without checking whether the response was an error. So anything the API refuses becomes "an unexpected error." What was it refusing? Cause 1: reasoning models reject the classic knobs o3-mini belongs to Azure/OpenAI's o-series reasoning models, which hard-reject parameters every classic chat client sends. Riffado sends temperature: 0.7 and max_tokens: 50 for titles (0.5 / 2000 for summaries), and o3-mini answers: POST /openai/v1/chat/completions · model=o3-mini HTTP 400 {"error":{"message":"Unsupported parameter: 'max_tokens' is not supported with this model. Use 'max_completion_tokens' instead.", …}} # and with max_tokens fixed: HTTP 400 {"error":{"message":"Unsupported parameter: 'temperature' is not supported with this model.", …}} Cause 2: reasoning tokens starve the output Stripping the bad params gets you to 200, and then comes a subtler failure, my personal favourite of this whole saga. Reasoning models spend completion tokens on internal "thinking" before emitting a single visible character. Riffado's 50-token title budget is consumed entirely by reasoning, and the reply comes back syntactically valid and empty: max_completion_tokens reasoning_effort finish_reason content 50 not set length "" (all 50 spent reasoning) 2000 not set stop "Q3 Budget Planning Strategy Meeting" 2000 low stop same, less reasoning overhead The fix: a Node shim that rewrites the request body Caddy can rewrite paths but not JSON bodies, so this shim is ~60 lines of dependency-free Node on node:20-alpine. Per request it: converts max_tokens → max_completion_tokens, strips temperature / top_p / penalties, floors the token budget at 4000, sets reasoning_effort: "low", maps /v1/* → /openai/v1/*, and forwards to the Azure resource. o3-shim.js const http = require('http'); const https = require('https'); const UPSTREAM_HOST = '<resource>.services.ai.azure.com'; // Params o-series reasoning models reject on chat/completions. const STRIP = ['temperature','top_p','presence_penalty', 'frequency_penalty','logprobs','top_logprobs']; const server = http.createServer((req, res) => { const chunks = []; req.on('data', c => chunks.push(c)); req.on('end', () => { let body = Buffer.concat(chunks); // Riffado's base_url is http://o3-shim/v1 → map to Azure's /openai/v1 let path = req.url; if (path.startsWith('/v1/')) path = '/openai' + path; const ct = (req.headers['content-type'] || '').toLowerCase(); if (ct.includes('application/json') && body.length) { try { const j = JSON.parse(body.toString('utf8')); if (j && typeof j === 'object' && !Array.isArray(j)) { if ('max_tokens' in j) { if (!('max_completion_tokens' in j)) j.max_completion_tokens = j.max_tokens; delete j.max_tokens; } // Reasoning spends tokens before any visible output; small // budgets (Riffado sends 50 for titles) return empty strings. if (Array.isArray(j.messages)) { j.max_completion_tokens = Math.max(Number(j.max_completion_tokens) || 0, 4000); if (!('reasoning_effort' in j)) j.reasoning_effort = 'low'; } for (const k of STRIP) delete j[k]; body = Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(j)); } } catch (_) { /* not JSON - forward untouched */ } } const headers = { ...req.headers, host: UPSTREAM_HOST, 'content-length': Buffer.byteLength(body) }; const up = https.request( { host: UPSTREAM_HOST, port: 443, method: req.method, path, headers }, upRes => { res.writeHead(upRes.statusCode, upRes.headers); upRes.pipe(res); } ); up.on('error', e => { res.writeHead(502, {'content-type':'application/json'}); res.end(JSON.stringify({error:{message:'o3-shim upstream error: '+e.message}})); }); up.end(body); }); }); server.listen(80, () => console.log('o3-shim listening on :80')); docker-compose.yml (added service) o3-shim: image: node:20-alpine restart: unless-stopped working_dir: /app command: ["node", "/app/o3-shim.js"] volumes: - ./o3-shim.js:/app/o3-shim.js:ro Add a second provider in Riffado (base URL http://o3-shim/v1, model o3-mini, the resource's API key) and set it as the default enhancement provider (summaries/titles), keeping the Whisper one as default for transcription. Riffado's exact title request (temperature: 0.7, max_tokens: 50) through the shim → 200, finish_reason: stop, real title text. A full meeting-transcript summary returns structured key points and action items. The final shape Reading it left to right: Riffado never talks to Azure directly. Transcription requests pass through azure-shim, a stock Caddy container that rewrites each request onto Whisper's classic deployment path and injects the mandatory api-version parameter. Summary and title requests pass through o3-shim, a tiny Node server that rewrites the request body into the shape o3-mini accepts and floors the token budget so the model's internal reasoning cannot starve the actual answer. As far as Riffado is concerned, it is simply talking to two ordinary OpenAI providers. Both shims live on the Compose network only; nothing is exposed publicly. Riffado is unmodified. Verification checklist Each layer, testable in isolation. Run these before blaming the app: smoke tests # 1. Key + resource alive? (v1 models listing, Bearer auth) curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \ https://<resource>.services.ai.azure.com/openai/v1/models | head -c 200 # 2. Whisper answers on the classic path? curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" -F file=@test.wav \ "https://<resource>.services.ai.azure.com/openai/deployments/whisper/audio/transcriptions?api-version=2024-06-01" # 3. Shim translates correctly? (from inside the compose network) docker exec riffado-app node -e "fetch('http://azure-shim/') .then(r=>r.text()).then(console.log)" # 4. o3-mini via shim, sending the params Riffado sends? # (temperature + max_tokens:50; the shim must absorb both) If you'd rather not run shims Both shims exist because of the specific models chosen. Pick models that live natively on the v1 route and Riffado connects directly, with base URL https://<resource>.services.ai.azure.com/openai/v1 and zero extra containers: Transcription: deploy gpt-4o-mini-transcribe (or gpt-4o-transcribe) instead of Whisper. Summaries: deploy a non-reasoning chat model such as gpt-4o-mini, which happily accepts temperature and max_tokens. The shim approach earns its keep when you're standardized on specific models (Whisper's transcription quality, o3-mini's reasoning), or when you want a control point to add logging, retries, or budget caps later. For reference, this is what the finished setup looks like on Riffado's side. Each shim is registered as a plain Custom provider. Here is the whisper provider pointing at azure-shim, with Use for transcription ticked: And once both are saved, they sit side by side in the providers list, whisper tagged for transcription and o3-mini tagged for enhancement: A quick look at the Foundry portal In the Microsoft Foundry portal, head over to Models > AI Services and you will find a pleasant surprise: fifteen AI service models already deployed and ready to use, covering the Azure Speech family (including Voice Live and Speech to Text), Azure Translator, Azure Language, and Content Understanding: You can of course deploy another model for this, but the pre-deployed ones are a handy cost-saving option. Click on the Azure Speech – Voice Live radio button and you will be shown the Base URL and API Key, which you can then paste into the provider settings on Riffado's Settings page. A quick note on cost: these services are not free. They are billed pay-as-you-go based on usage. Azure Speech transcription is charged per audio hour, and Voice Live pricing is tiered by the model you choose. The free tier does include a monthly allowance, though. Check the Azure Speech pricing page before committing. And if you would rather deploy a dedicated transcription model such as whisper, Foundry gives you the flexibility to do just that. Open the model page in the catalogue, click Deploy, and go with Default settings unless you need custom quotas or guardrails: Let's test the setup On your Plaud device, just tap to start recording. The little LED bars light up to show it is listening: Or skip the device entirely and upload an audio file straight into Riffado using the Upload Audio button. Either way, the recording lands on the Recordings page; hit Transcribe and let the spinner do its thing: As you can see below, whisper, the transcription model we deployed earlier, even managed to transcribe a recording in Malay without a hitch. My 3:32 test clip came back as 186 words of clean Malay, with the language correctly detected and tagged: I have also set o3-mini as the enhancement provider, and it enhanced the transcription with a proper summary, key points, and title as well! The Meeting Notes-style summary came straight out of o3-mini through the shim, with zero manual prompting. Wrapping up What started as a TikTok-fuelled impulse buy nearly killed off by subscription pricing ended up as a fully self-hosted pipeline: Plaud for recording, Riffado as the interface, and Microsoft Foundry serving whisper and o3-mini behind two tiny shims. The total extra infrastructure came to two containers and roughly sixty lines of code, and not a single monthly subscription in sight. If you try this setup and run into a failure mode I have not covered here, do share it in the comments. Half the fun is in the debugging.Fine-Tuning and Deploying Phi-3.5 Model with Azure and AI Toolkit
What is Phi-3.5? Phi-3.5 as a state-of-the-art language model with strong multilingual capabilities. Emphasize that it is designed to handle multiple languages with high proficiency, making it a versatile tool for Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks across different linguistic backgrounds. Key Features of Phi-3.5 Highlight the core features of the Phi-3.5 model: Multilingual Capabilities: Explain that the model supports a wide variety of languages, including major world languages such as English, Spanish, Chinese, French, and others. You can provide an example of its ability to handle a sentence or document translation from one language to another without losing context or meaning. Fine-Tuning Ability: Discuss how the model can be fine-tuned for specific use cases. For instance, in a customer support setting, the Phi-3.5 model can be fine-tuned to understand the nuances of different languages used by customers across the globe, improving response accuracy. High Performance in NLP Tasks: Phi-3.5 is optimized for tasks like text classification, machine translation, summarization, and more. It has superior performance in handling large-scale datasets and producing coherent, contextually correct language outputs. Applications in Real-World Scenarios To make this section more engaging, provide a few real-world applications where the Phi-3.5 model can be utilized: Customer Support Chatbots: For companies with global customer bases, the model’s multilingual support can enhance chatbot capabilities, allowing for real-time responses in a customer’s native language, no matter where they are located. Content Creation for Global Markets: Discuss how businesses can use Phi-3.5 to automatically generate or translate content for different regions. For example, marketing copy can be adapted to fit cultural and linguistic nuances in multiple languages. Document Summarization Across Languages: Highlight how the model can be used to summarize long documents or articles written in one language and then translate the summary into another language, improving access to information for non-native speakers. Why Choose Phi-3.5 for Your Project? End this section by emphasizing why someone should use Phi-3.5: Versatility: It’s not limited to just one or two languages but performs well across many. Customization: The ability to fine-tune it for particular use cases or industries makes it highly adaptable. Ease of Deployment: With tools like Azure ML and Ollama, deploying Phi-3.5 in the cloud or locally is accessible even for smaller teams. Objective Of Blog Specialized Language Models (SLMs) are at the forefront of advancements in Natural Language Processing, offering fine-tuned, high-performance solutions for specific tasks and languages. Among these, the Phi-3.5 model has emerged as a powerful tool, excelling in its multilingual capabilities. Whether you're working with English, Spanish, Mandarin, or any other major world language, Phi-3.5 offers robust, reliable language processing that adapts to various real-world applications. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to deploy multilingual chatbots, automate content generation, or translate customer interactions in real time. Moreover, its fine-tuning ability allows for customization, making Phi-3.5 versatile across industries and tasks. Customization and Fine-Tuning for Different Applications The Phi-3.5 model is not just limited to general language understanding tasks. It can be fine-tuned for specific applications, industries, and language models, allowing users to tailor its performance to meet their needs. Customizable for Industry-Specific Use Cases: With fine-tuning, the model can be trained further on domain-specific data to handle particular use cases like legal document translation, medical records analysis, or technical support. Example: A healthcare company can fine-tune Phi-3.5 to understand medical terminology in multiple languages, enabling it to assist in processing patient records or generating multilingual health reports. Adapting for Specialized Tasks: You can train Phi-3.5 to perform specialized tasks like sentiment analysis, text summarization, or named entity recognition in specific languages. Fine-tuning helps enhance the model's ability to handle unique text formats or requirements. Example: A marketing team can fine-tune the model to analyse customer feedback in different languages to identify trends or sentiment across various regions. The model can quickly classify feedback as positive, negative, or neutral, even in less widely spoken languages like Arabic or Korean. Applications in Real-World Scenarios To illustrate the versatility of Phi-3.5, here are some real-world applications where this model excels, demonstrating its multilingual capabilities and customization potential: Case Study 1: Multilingual Customer Support Chatbots Many global companies rely on chatbots to handle customer queries in real-time. With Phi-3.5’s multilingual abilities, businesses can deploy a single model that understands and responds in multiple languages, cutting down on the need to create language-specific chatbots. Example: A global airline can use Phi-3.5 to power its customer service bot. Passengers from different countries can inquire about their flight status or baggage policies in their native languages—whether it's Japanese, Hindi, or Portuguese—and the model responds accurately in the appropriate language. Case Study 2: Multilingual Content Generation Phi-3.5 is also useful for businesses that need to generate content in different languages. For example, marketing campaigns often require creating region-specific ads or blog posts in multiple languages. Phi-3.5 can help automate this process by generating localized content that is not just translated but adapted to fit the cultural context of the target audience. Example: An international cosmetics brand can use Phi-3.5 to automatically generate product descriptions for different regions. Instead of merely translating a product description from English to Spanish, the model can tailor the description to fit cultural expectations, using language that resonates with Spanish-speaking audiences. Case Study 3: Document Translation and Summarization Phi-3.5 can be used to translate or summarize complex documents across languages. Its ability to preserve meaning and context across languages makes it ideal for industries where accuracy is crucial, such as legal or academic fields. Example: A legal firm working on cross-border cases can use Phi-3.5 to translate contracts or legal briefs from German to English, ensuring the context and legal terminology are accurately preserved. It can also summarize lengthy documents in multiple languages, saving time for legal teams. Fine-Tuning Phi-3.5 Model Fine-tuning a language model like Phi-3.5 is a crucial step in adapting it to perform specific tasks or cater to specific domains. This section will walk through what fine-tuning is, its importance in NLP, and how to fine-tune the Phi-3.5 model using Azure Model Catalog for different languages and tasks. We'll also explore a code example and best practices for evaluating and validating the fine-tuned model. What is Fine-Tuning? Fine-tuning refers to the process of taking a pre-trained model and adapting it to a specific task or dataset by training it further on domain-specific data. In the context of NLP, fine-tuning is often required to ensure that the language model understands the nuances of a particular language, industry-specific terminology, or a specific use case. Why Fine-Tuning is Necessary Pre-trained Large Language Models (LLMs) are trained on diverse datasets and can handle various tasks like text summarization, generation, and question answering. However, they may not perform optimally in specialized domains without fine-tuning. The goal of fine-tuning is to enhance the model's performance on specific tasks by leveraging its prior knowledge while adapting it to new contexts. Challenges of Fine-Tuning Resource Intensiveness: Fine-tuning large models can be computationally expensive, requiring significant hardware resources. Storage Costs: Each fine-tuned model can be large, leading to increased storage needs when deploying multiple models for different tasks. LoRA and QLoRA To address these challenges, techniques like LoRA (Low-rank Adaptation) and QLoRA (Quantized Low-rank Adaptation) have emerged. Both methods aim to make the fine-tuning process more efficient: LoRA: This technique reduces the number of trainable parameters by introducing low-rank matrices into the model while keeping the original model weights frozen. This approach minimizes memory usage and speeds up the fine-tuning process. QLoRA: An enhancement of LoRA, QLoRA incorporates quantization techniques to further reduce memory requirements and increase the efficiency of the fine-tuning process. It allows for the deployment of large models on consumer hardware without the extensive resource demands typically associated with full fine-tuning. from transformers import AutoModelForSequenceClassification, Trainer, TrainingArguments from peft import get_peft_model, LoraConfig # Load a pre-trained model model = AutoModelForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained("bert-base-uncased") # Configure LoRA lora_config = LoraConfig( r=16, # Rank lora_alpha=32, lora_dropout=0.1, ) # Wrap the model with LoRA model = get_peft_model(model, lora_config) # Define training arguments training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", evaluation_strategy="epoch", learning_rate=2e-5, per_device_train_batch_size=16, per_device_eval_batch_size=16, num_train_epochs=3, ) # Create a Trainer trainer = Trainer( model=model, args=training_args, train_dataset=train_dataset, eval_dataset=eval_dataset, ) # Start fine-tuning trainer.train() This code outlines how to set up a model for fine-tuning using LoRA, which can significantly reduce the resource requirements while still adapting the model effectively to specific tasks. In summary, fine-tuning with methods like LoRA and QLoRA is essential for optimizing pre-trained models for specific applications in NLP, making it feasible to deploy these powerful models in various domains efficiently. Why is Fine-Tuning Important in NLP? Task-Specific Performance: Fine-tuning helps improve performance for tasks like text classification, machine translation, or sentiment analysis in specific domains (e.g., legal, healthcare). Language-Specific Adaptation: Since models like Phi-3.5 are trained on general datasets, fine-tuning helps them handle industry-specific jargon or linguistic quirks. Efficient Resource Utilization: Instead of training a model from scratch, fine-tuning leverages pre-trained knowledge, saving computational resources and time. Steps to Fine-Tune Phi-3.5 in Azure AI Foundry Fine-tuning the Phi-3.5 model in Azure AI Foundry involves several key steps. Azure provides a user-friendly interface to streamline model customization, allowing you to quickly configure, train, and deploy models. Step 1: Setting Up the Environment in Azure AI Foundry Access Azure AI Foundry: Log in to Azure AI Foundry. If you don’t have an account, you can create one and set up a workspace. Create a New Experiment: Once in the Azure AI Foundry, create a new training experiment. Choose the Phi-3.5 model from the pre-trained models provided in the Azure Model Zoo. Set Up the Data for Fine-Tuning: Upload your custom dataset for fine-tuning. Ensure the dataset is in a compatible format (e.g., CSV, JSON). For instance, if you are fine-tuning the model for a customer service chatbot, you could upload customer queries in different languages. Step 2: Configure Fine-Tuning Settings Select the Training Dataset: Select the dataset you uploaded and link it to the Phi-3.5 model. 2) Configure the Hyperparameters: Set up training hyperparameters like the number of epochs, learning rate, and batch size. You may need to experiment with these settings to achieve optimal performance. 3) Choose the Task Type: Specify the task you are fine-tuning for, such as text classification, translation, or summarization. This helps Azure AI Foundry understand how to optimize the model during fine-tuning. 4) Fine-Tuning for Specific Languages: If you are fine-tuning for a specific language or multilingual tasks, ensure that the dataset is labeled appropriately and contains enough examples in the target language(s). This will allow Phi-3.5 to learn language-specific features effectively. Step 3: Train the Model Launch the Training Process: Once the configuration is complete, launch the training process in Azure AI Foundry. Depending on the size of your dataset and the complexity of the model, this could take some time. Monitor Training Progress: Use Azure AI Foundry’s built-in monitoring tools to track performance metrics such as loss, accuracy, and F1 score. You can view the model’s progress during training to ensure that it is learning effectively. Code Example: Fine-Tuning Phi-3.5 for a Specific Use Case Here's a code snippet for fine-tuning the Phi-3.5 model using Python and Azure AI Foundry SDK. In this example, we are fine-tuning the model for a customer support chatbot in multiple languages. from azure.ai import Foundry from azure.ai.model import Model # Initialize Azure AI Foundry foundry = Foundry() # Load the Phi-3.5 model model = Model.load("phi-3.5") # Set up the training dataset training_data = foundry.load_dataset("customer_queries_dataset") # Fine-tune the model model.fine_tune(training_data, epochs=5, learning_rate=0.001) # Save the fine-tuned model model.save("fine_tuned_phi_3.5") Best Practices for Evaluating and Validating Fine-Tuned Models Once the model is fine-tuned, it's essential to evaluate and validate its performance before deploying it in production. Split Data for Validation: Always split your dataset into training and validation sets. This ensures that the model is evaluated on unseen data to prevent overfitting. Evaluate Key Metrics: Measure performance using key metrics such as: Accuracy: The proportion of correct predictions. F1 Score: A measure of precision and recall. Confusion Matrix: Helps visualize true vs. false predictions for classification tasks. Cross-Language Validation: If the model is fine-tuned for multiple languages, test its performance across all supported languages to ensure consistency and accuracy. Test in Production-Like Environments: Before full deployment, test the fine-tuned model in a production-like environment to catch any potential issues. Continuous Monitoring and Re-Fine-Tuning: Once deployed, continuously monitor the model’s performance and re-fine-tune it periodically as new data becomes available. Deploying Phi-3.5 Model After fine-tuning the Phi-3.5 model, the next crucial step is deploying it to make it accessible for real-world applications. This section will cover two key deployment strategies: deploying in Azure for cloud-based scaling and reliability, and deploying locally with AI Toolkit for simpler offline usage. Each deployment strategy offers its own advantages depending on the use case. Deploying in Azure Azure provides a powerful environment for deploying machine learning models at scale, enabling organizations to deploy models like Phi-3.5 with high availability, scalability, and robust security features. Azure AI Foundry simplifies the entire deployment pipeline. Set Up Azure AI Foundry Workspace: Log in to Azure AI Foundry and navigate to the workspace where the Phi-3.5 model was fine-tuned. Go to the Deployments section and create a new deployment environment for the model. Choose Compute Resources: Compute Target: Select a compute target suitable for your deployment. For large-scale usage, it’s advisable to choose a GPU-based compute instance. Example: Choose an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster for handling large-scale requests efficiently. Configure Scaling Options: Azure allows you to set up auto-scaling based on traffic. This ensures that the model can handle surges in demand without affecting performance. Model Deployment Configuration: Create an Inference Pipeline: In Azure AI Foundry, set up an inference pipeline for your model. Specify the Model: Link the fine-tuned Phi-3.5 model to the deployment pipeline. Deploy the Model: Select the option to deploy the model to the chosen compute resource. Test the Deployment: Once the model is deployed, test the endpoint by sending sample requests to verify the predictions. Configuration Steps (Compute, Resources, Scaling) During deployment, Azure AI Foundry allows you to configure essential aspects like compute type, resource allocation, and scaling options. Compute Type: Choose between CPU or GPU clusters depending on the computational intensity of the model. Resource Allocation: Define the minimum and maximum resources to be allocated for the deployment. For real-time applications, use Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for high availability. For batch inference, Azure Container Instances (ACI) is suitable. Auto-Scaling: Set up automatic scaling of the compute instances based on the number of requests. For example, configure the deployment to start with 1 node and scale to 10 nodes during peak usage. Cost Comparison: Phi-3.5 vs. Larger Language Models When comparing the costs of using Phi-3.5 with larger language models (LLMs), several factors come into play, including computational resources, pricing structures, and performance efficiency. Here’s a breakdown: Cost Efficiency Phi-3.5: Designed as a Small Language Model (SLM), Phi-3.5 is optimized for lower computational costs. It offers competitive performance at a fraction of the cost of larger models, making it suitable for budget-conscious projects. The smaller size (3.8 billion parameters) allows for reduced resource consumption during both training and inference. Larger Language Models (e.g., GPT-3.5): Typically require more computational resources, leading to higher operational costs. Larger models may incur additional costs for storage and processing power, especially in cloud environments. Performance vs. Cost Performance Parity: Phi-3.5 has been shown to achieve performance parity with larger models on various benchmarks, including language comprehension and reasoning tasks. This means that for many applications, Phi-3.5 can deliver similar results to larger models without the associated costs. Use Case Suitability: For simpler tasks or applications that do not require extensive factual knowledge, Phi-3.5 is often the more cost-effective choice. Larger models may still be preferred for complex tasks requiring deep contextual understanding or extensive factual recall. Pricing Structure Azure Pricing: Phi-3.5 is available through Azure with a pay-as-you-go billing model, allowing users to scale costs based on usage. Pricing details for Phi-3.5 can be found on the Azure pricing page, where users can customize options based on their needs. Code Example: API Setup and Endpoints for Live Interaction Below is a Python code snippet demonstrating how to interact with a deployed Phi-3.5 model via an API in Azure: import requests # Define the API endpoint and your API key api_url = "https://<your-azure-endpoint>/predict" api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY" # Prepare the input data input_data = { "text": "What are the benefits of renewable energy?" } # Make the API request response = requests.post(api_url, json=input_data, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}"}) # Print the model's response if response.status_code == 200: print("Model Response:", response.json()) else: print("Error:", response.status_code, response.text) Deploying Locally with AI Toolkit For developers who prefer to run models on their local machines, the AI Toolkit provides a convenient solution. The AI Toolkit is a lightweight platform that simplifies local deployment of AI models, allowing for offline usage, experimentation, and rapid prototyping. Deploying the Phi-3.5 model locally using the AI Toolkit is straightforward and can be used for personal projects, testing, or scenarios where cloud access is limited. Introduction to AI Toolkit The AI Toolkit is an easy-to-use platform for deploying language models locally without relying on cloud infrastructure. It supports a range of AI models and enables developers to work in a low-latency environment. Advantages of deploying locally with AI Toolkit: Offline Capability: No need for continuous internet access. Quick Experimentation: Rapid prototyping and testing without the delays of cloud deployments. Setup Guide: Installing and Running Phi-3.5 Locally Using AI Toolkit Install AI Toolkit: Go to the AI Toolkit website and download the platform for your operating system (Linux, macOS, or Windows). Install AI Toolkit by running the appropriate installation command in your terminal. Download the Phi-3.5 Model: Once AI Toolkit is installed, you can download the Phi-3.5 model locally by running: 3. Run the Model Locally: After downloading the model, start a local session by running: This will launch a local server on your machine where the model will be available for interaction. Code Example: Using Phi-3.5 Locally in a Project Below is a Python code example demonstrating how to send a query to the locally deployed Phi-3.5 model running on the AI Toolkit. import requests # Define the local endpoint local_url = "http://localhost:8000/predict" # Prepare the input data input_data = { "text": "What are the benefits of renewable energy?" } # Make the API request response = requests.post(local_url, json=input_data) # Print the model's response if response.status_code == 200: print("Model Response:", response.json()) else: print("Error:", response.status_code, response.text) Comparing Language Capabilities Test Results: How Phi-3.5 Handles Different Languages The Phi-3.5 model demonstrates robust multilingual capabilities, effectively processing and generating text in various languages. Below are comparative examples showcasing its performance in English, Spanish, and Mandarin: English Example: Input: "What are the benefits of renewable energy?" Output: "Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainability." Spanish Example: Input: "¿Cuáles son los beneficios de la energía renovable?" Output: "Las fuentes de energía renovable, como la solar y la eólica, reducen las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y promueven la sostenibilidad." Mandarin Example: Input: "可再生能源的好处是什么？" Output: "可再生能源，如太阳能和风能，减少温室气体排放，促进可持续发展。" Performance Benchmarking and Evaluation Across Different Languages Benchmarking Phi-3.5 across different languages involves evaluating its accuracy, fluency, and contextual understanding. For instance, using BLEU scores and human evaluations, the model can be assessed on its translation quality and coherence in various languages. Real-World Use Case: Multilingual Customer Service Chatbot A practical application of Phi-3.5's multilingual capabilities is in developing a customer service chatbot that can interact with users in their preferred language. For instance, the chatbot could provide support in English, Spanish, and Mandarin, ensuring a wider reach and better user experience. Optimizing and Validating Phi-3.5 Model Model Performance Metrics To validate the model's performance in different scenarios, consider the following metrics: Accuracy: Measure how often the model's outputs are correct or align with expected results. Fluency: Assess the naturalness and readability of the generated text. Contextual Understanding: Evaluate how well the model understands and responds to context-specific queries. Tools to Use in Azure and Ollama for Evaluation Azure Cognitive Services: Utilize tools like Text Analytics and Translator to evaluate performance. Ollama: Use local testing environments to quickly iterate and validate model outputs. Conclusion In summary, Phi-3.5 exhibits impressive multilingual capabilities, effective deployment options, and robust performance metrics. Its ability to handle various languages makes it a versatile tool for natural language processing applications. Phi-3.5 stands out for its adaptability and performance in multilingual contexts, making it an excellent choice for future NLP projects, especially those requiring diverse language support. We encourage readers to experiment with the Phi-3.5 model using Azure AI Foundry or the AI Toolkit, explore fine-tuning techniques for their specific use cases, and share their findings with the community. For more information on optimized fine-tuning techniques, check out the Ignite Fine-Tuning Workshop. References Customize the Phi-3.5 family of models with LoRA fine-tuning in Azure Fine-tune Phi-3.5 models in Azure Fine Tuning with Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft Olive Hands on Labs and Workshop Customize a model with fine-tuning https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/openai/how-to/fine-tuning?tabs=azure-openai%2Cturbo%2Cpython-new&pivots=programming-language-studio Microsoft AI Toolkit - AI Toolkit for VSCodeAzure AI Model Inference API
The Azure AI Model Inference API provides a unified interface for developers to interact with various foundational models deployed in Azure AI Studio. This API allows developers to generate predictions from multiple models without changing their underlying code. By providing a consistent set of capabilities, the API simplifies the process of integrating and switching between different models, enabling seamless model selection based on task requirements.Integrating Microsoft Foundry with OpenClaw: Step by Step Model Configuration
Step 1: Deploying Models on Microsoft Foundry Let us kick things off in the Azure portal. To get our OpenClaw agent thinking like a genius, we need to deploy our models in Microsoft Foundry. For this guide, we are going to focus on deploying gpt-5.2-codex on Microsoft Foundry with OpenClaw. Navigate to your AI Hub, head over to the model catalog, choose the model you wish to use with OpenClaw and hit deploy. Once your deployment is successful, head to the endpoints section. Important: Grab your Endpoint URL and your API Keys right now and save them in a secure note. We will need these exact values to connect OpenClaw in a few minutes. Step 2: Installing and Initializing OpenClaw Next up, we need to get OpenClaw running on your machine. Open up your terminal and run the official installation script: curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash The wizard will walk you through a few prompts. Here is exactly how to answer them to link up with our Azure setup: First Page (Model Selection): Choose "Skip for now". Second Page (Provider): Select azure-openai-responses. Model Selection: Select gpt-5.2-codex , For now only the models listed (hosted on Microsoft Foundry) in the picture below are available to be used with OpenClaw. Follow the rest of the standard prompts to finish the initial setup. Step 3: Editing the OpenClaw Configuration File Now for the fun part. We need to manually configure OpenClaw to talk to Microsoft Foundry. Open your configuration file located at ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json in your favorite text editor. Replace the contents of the models and agents sections with the following code block: { "models": { "providers": { "azure-openai-responses": { "baseUrl": "https://<YOUR_RESOURCE_NAME>.openai.azure.com/openai/v1", "apiKey": "<YOUR_AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY>", "api": "openai-responses", "authHeader": false, "headers": { "api-key": "<YOUR_AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY>" }, "models": [ { "id": "gpt-5.2-codex", "name": "GPT-5.2-Codex (Azure)", "reasoning": true, "input": ["text", "image"], "cost": { "input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 }, "contextWindow": 400000, "maxTokens": 16384, "compat": { "supportsStore": false } }, { "id": "gpt-5.2", "name": "GPT-5.2 (Azure)", "reasoning": false, "input": ["text", "image"], "cost": { "input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 }, "contextWindow": 272000, "maxTokens": 16384, "compat": { "supportsStore": false } } ] } } }, "agents": { "defaults": { "model": { "primary": "azure-openai-responses/gpt-5.2-codex" }, "models": { "azure-openai-responses/gpt-5.2-codex": {} }, "workspace": "/home/<USERNAME>/.openclaw/workspace", "compaction": { "mode": "safeguard" }, "maxConcurrent": 4, "subagents": { "maxConcurrent": 8 } } } } You will notice a few placeholders in that JSON. Here is exactly what you need to swap out: Placeholder Variable What It Is Where to Find It <YOUR_RESOURCE_NAME> The unique name of your Azure OpenAI resource. Found in your Azure Portal under the Azure OpenAI resource overview. <YOUR_AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY> The secret key required to authenticate your requests. Found in Microsoft Foundry under your project endpoints or Azure Portal keys section. <USERNAME> Your local computer's user profile name. Open your terminal and type whoami to find this. Step 4: Restart the Gateway After saving the configuration file, you must restart the OpenClaw gateway for the new Foundry settings to take effect. Run this simple command: openclaw gateway restart Configuration Notes & Deep Dive If you are curious about why we configured the JSON that way, here is a quick breakdown of the technical details. Authentication Differences Azure OpenAI uses the api-key HTTP header for authentication. This is entirely different from the standard OpenAI Authorization: Bearer header. Our configuration file addresses this in two ways: Setting "authHeader": false completely disables the default Bearer header. Adding "headers": { "api-key": "<key>" } forces OpenClaw to send the API key via Azure's native header format. Important Note: Your API key must appear in both the apiKey field AND the headers.api-key field within the JSON for this to work correctly. The Base URL Azure OpenAI's v1-compatible endpoint follows this specific format: https://<your_resource_name>.openai.azure.com/openai/v1 The beautiful thing about this v1 endpoint is that it is largely compatible with the standard OpenAI API and does not require you to manually pass an api-version query parameter. Model Compatibility Settings "compat": { "supportsStore": false } disables the store parameter since Azure OpenAI does not currently support it. "reasoning": true enables the thinking mode for GPT-5.2-Codex. This supports low, medium, high, and xhigh levels. "reasoning": false is set for GPT-5.2 because it is a standard, non-reasoning model. Model Specifications & Cost Tracking If you want OpenClaw to accurately track your token usage costs, you can update the cost fields from 0 to the current Azure pricing. Here are the specs and costs for the models we just deployed: Model Specifications Model Context Window Max Output Tokens Image Input Reasoning gpt-5.2-codex 400,000 tokens 16,384 tokens Yes Yes gpt-5.2 272,000 tokens 16,384 tokens Yes No Current Cost (Adjust in JSON) Model Input (per 1M tokens) Output (per 1M tokens) Cached Input (per 1M tokens) gpt-5.2-codex $1.75 $14.00 $0.175 gpt-5.2 $2.00 $8.00 $0.50 Conclusion: And there you have it! You have successfully bridged the gap between the enterprise-grade infrastructure of Microsoft Foundry and the local autonomy of OpenClaw. By following these steps, you are not just running a chatbot; you are running a sophisticated agent capable of reasoning, coding, and executing tasks with the full power of GPT-5.2-codex behind it. The combination of Azure's reliability and OpenClaw's flexibility opens up a world of possibilities. Whether you are building an automated devops assistant, a research agent, or just exploring the bleeding edge of AI, you now have a robust foundation to build upon. Now it is time to let your agent loose on some real tasks. Go forth, experiment with different system prompts, and see what you can build. If you run into any interesting edge cases or come up with a unique configuration, let me know in the comments below. Happy coding!Redeeming Azure for Student from your GitHub Student Pack when you do not have an Academic Email
GitHub Student Developer Pack Learn to ship software like a pro. There's no substitute for hands-on experience. But for most students, real world tools can be cost-prohibitive. That's why we created the GitHub Student Developer Pack with some of our partners and friends. Sign up for Student Developer Pack
Microsoft’s A-Grade Azure AI Stack: From Dissertation Prototype to Smart Campus Pilot
This post isn't just about the Student Support Agent (SSA) I built, which earned me a Distinction. It's about how Microsoft's tools made it possible to go from a rough concept to a robust pilot, proving their developer stack is one of the most convenient and powerful options for building intelligent, ethical, and scalable educational systems. The Vision: Cutting Through Campus Complexity University life is full of fragmented systems. Students constantly juggle multiple logins, websites, and interfaces just to check a timetable, book a room, or find a policy. My goal was simple: reduce that cognitive load by creating a unified assistant that could manage all these tasks through a single, intelligent conversation. The Stack That Made It Possible The core of the system relied on a few key, interconnected technologies: Technology Core Function Impact Azure AI Search Hybrid Data Retrieval Anchored responses in official documents. Azure OpenAI Natural Language Generation Created human-like, accurate answers. Semantic Kernel (SK) Multi-Agent Orchestration Managed complex workflows and memory. Azure Speech SDK Multimodal Interface Enabled accessible voice input and output. The foundation was built using Streamlit and FastAPI for rapid prototyping. Building a system that's context-aware, accessible, and extensible is a huge challenge, but it's exactly where the Microsoft AI stack shined. From Simple Chatbot to Multi-Agent Powerhouse Early campus chatbots are often single-agent models, great for basic FAQs, but they quickly fail when tasks span multiple services. I used Semantic Kernel (SK) Microsoft's powerful, open-source framework to build a modular, hub-and-spoke multi-agent system. A central orchestrator routes a request (like "book a study room") to a specialist agent (the Booking Agent), which knows exactly how to handle that task. This modularity was a game-changer: I could add new features (like an Events Agent) without breaking the core system, ensuring the architecture stayed clean and ready for expansion. Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation (Agentic RAG): Trust and Transparency To ensure the assistant was trustworthy, I used Agentic RAG to ground responses in real campus (Imperial College London) documentation. This included everything from admission fee payments to campus shuttle time. Azure AI Search indexed all handbooks and policies, allowing the assistant to pull relevant chunks of data and then cite the sources directly in its response. Result: The system avoids common hallucinations by refusing to answer when confidence is low. Students can verify every piece of advice, dramatically improving trust and transparency. Results: A Foundation for Scalable Support A pilot study with 15 students was highly successful: 100% positive feedback on the ease of use and perceived benefit. 93% satisfaction with the voice features. High trust was established due to transparent citations. The SSA proved it could save students time by centralising tasks like booking rooms, checking policies and offering study tips! Final Thoughts Microsoft’s AI ecosystem didn’t just support my dissertation; it shaped it. The tools were reliable, well-documented, and flexible enough to handle real-world complexity. More importantly, they allowed me to focus on student experience, ethics, and pedagogy, rather than wrestling with infrastructure. If you’re a student, educator, or developer looking to build intelligent systems that are transparent, inclusive, and scalable, Microsoft’s AI stack is a great place to start! 🙋🏽♀️ About Me I’m Tyana Tshiota, a postgraduate student in Applied Computational Science and Engineering at Imperial College London. Leveraging Microsoft’s AI stack and the extensive documentation on Microsoft Learn played a key role in achieving a Distinction in my dissertation. Moving forward, I’m excited to deepen my expertise by pursuing Azure certifications. I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Lee_Stott , for his invaluable mentorship and support throughout this project. If you haven’t already, check out his insightful posts on the Educator Developer Blog, or try building your own agent with the AI Agents for Beginners curriculum developed by Lee and his team! You can reach out via my LinkedIn if you’re interested in smart campus systems, AI in education, collaborative development, or would like to discuss opportunities.Pantry Log–Microsoft Cognitive, IOT and Mobile App for Managing your Fridge Food Stock
First published on MSDN on Mar 06, 2018 We are Ami Zou (CS & Math), Silvia Sapora(CS), and Elena Liu (Engineering), three undergraduate students from UCL, Imperial College London, and Cambridge University respectively.Azure Charts Visualize your cloud learning journey
Azure Charts is a web based application which allows you to see what the Azure consists of and how it evolves. Additionally, to help you learn Azure in a focused way and stay up-to-date in your knowledge, there is a suite of interactive charts introduced recently which you can find under the Learning menu in the navigation bar. The learning menus utilize the Microsoft Learn Catalog API
