Microsoft’s Phi-4 thinks big; Women in mining
Microsoft’s Phi-4-15B is a compact AI model processing text and images efficiently, proving that smarter, smaller systems can drive big impact. Similarly, Priya Agarwal Hebbar highlights that empowering women in metals and mining is key to India’s industrial innovation and economic growth.
Hello,
Happy International Women’s Day! Every March 8, we celebrate the achievements of women around the world and spotlight the ongoing fight for equality, justice, and protection from discrimination and violence.
The theme for 2026, “Give To Gain”, captures the spirit of collective progress. As the official platform puts it, “Giving is not a subtraction, it's intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise.” It’s a powerful reminder that supporting each other doesn’t just help individuals, it lifts entire communities.
In tech news, Google said it will continue offering Anthropic’s AI technology to its clients, excluding defence work, a day after Microsoft made a similar announcement.
The two companies confirmed they will keep supporting Anthropic’s AI models for civilian and non‑defence projects following the US Department of Defense’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, a rare move against an AI firm that limits its technology’s use in military applications.
Meanwhile, China plans to leverage AI to create jobs for the country’s 12.7 million new university graduates this year—more than the population of countries like Belgium.
The government aims to modernise traditional roles, expand employment opportunities across multiple channels, and help young people showcase their skills, said Human Resources and Social Security Minister.
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- Microsoft’s Phi-4 shows small AI can think big
- Priya Agarwal Hebbar on women in mining
Here’s your trivia for today: Which was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote?
Technology
Microsoft’s Phi-4 model shows smaller AI can think big
Design: Nihar Apte
Microsoft’s Phi-4-reasoning-vision-15B is a compact multimodal AI model that processes both images and text while prioritising efficiency over massive scale. Instead of building ever-larger models, Microsoft is exploring smaller, cost-effective systems that can run on more modest hardware and even edge devices.
Key takeaways:
- With 15 billion parameters, it delivers strong multimodal performance while requiring far less compute than massive frontier models.
- Uses a mixed-reasoning system (“think” vs “nothink” tokens) that performs step-by-step reasoning only for complex tasks, improving speed and efficiency.
- Its detailed vision capability can recognise UI elements on screens, enabling future AI assistants to navigate apps, fill forms, and perform computer tasks automatically.
Interview
Priya Agarwal Hebbar on women in mining
Priya Agarwal Hebbar, Director of Vedanta Limited and Chairperson of Hindustan Zinc, says women’s participation in metals and mining is no longer just about diversity—it is critical to India’s economic competitiveness. Redesigning industrial workplaces for women, she adds, will be key to building the country’s future manufacturing and energy ecosystem.
Empowering women:
- Priya Hebbar argues that metals underpin EVs, solar energy, and infrastructure, and India cannot become a $10-trillion manufacturing powerhouse without engaging the full talent of its workforce.
- Automation, predictive analytics, satellite mapping, and sustainability science are transforming mining, making the sector far less physically intensive and opening more opportunities for diverse talent.
- The focus should shift from asking whether women “fit” into mining to redesigning workplaces through better infrastructure, safe night-shift policies, leadership pipelines, and career-continuity support.
News & updates
- Energy: The European Union is examining energy taxes, network charges, and carbon costs as possible areas for short-term measures to ease pressure on industries hit by high energy prices.
- Price hike: The prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders have been hiked from March 7 in India, as energy costs continue to rise due to the West Asia conflict.
- Data centre: Oracle Corp. and OpenAI have scrapped plans to expand a flagship artificial intelligence data centre in Texas after negotiations dragged over financing and OpenAI’s changing needs.
Which was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote?
Answer: New Zealand
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