Interested in regular Model News & Updates? Subscribe to the The Model Mondays Newsletter - read the first edition for context.

Model Mondays is a weekly series that combines a 30-minute livestream (Monday at 1:30pm ET) with a 30-minute AMA (Fridays at 1:30pm ET) to build your AI model IQ.

1. 5-min Highlights - recaps the top 5 news items from last week
2. 15-min Spotlights - a deep-dive with a subject matter expert
3. 30-min AMAs - open-ended discussion, Q&A with the expert

This week we put the spotlight on Advanced Reasoning with subject matter expert Marlene Mhangami - and covered the top 5 model-related news from Azure AI Foundry - in our #ModelMondays livestream. Browse the slides below - then join us Friday for Q&A with Marlene:

👉🏽👉🏽 Register for the AMA on our Azure AI Foundry Discord
👉🏽👉🏽 Post Your Questions on our Discussion Forum

Want to get a sense for what Reasoning models are, what advanced reasoning covers? Read on.

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What are Reasoning models?

Reasoning models are a new category of Large Language Models that are trained (with large-scale reinforcement learning) to think deeply before they respond. These reasoning abilities are achieved by a combination of techniques including chain-of-thought, self-consistency, and deliberative alignment.

Reasoning models are designed to tackle hard problems involving logic, stratgegy, complex reasoning and multi-step planning. They are particularly effective in STEM fields (math, science, coding) where they can outperform popular general-purpose models in competitive benchmarks.

Want an introduction to reasoning models? Watch this episode from Season 1 where Jennifer Marsman covers the OpenAI o-series of reasoning models.

Advanced Reasoning Scenario

While the previous talk gives you a sense for what reasoning models are with a real-world use case, this advanced reasoning episode takes it a step further with an end-to-end sample and workshop that teaches you how to build a Deep Researcher - a research assistant that can conduct comprehensive web research, analyze & synthesize the information, and present its findings in a report.

The solution uses the DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model with the Tabily web search API, and the LangGraph framework to perform iterative cycles of research before delivering the final result. Watch the livestream of the episode below:

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Reasoning Lab For Beginners

Want to get hands-on experience with reasoning models and learn how they differ from general-purpose models? Try this self-guided lab from Microsoft Build 2025 which explores the OpenAI o-series of reasoning models with hands-on exercises!

👉🏽👉🏽 Explore The Lab on GitHub
👉🏽👉🏽 Browse The Presentation on SpeakerDeck

The storyboard summarizes what the lab covers.

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Build Your Model IQ!

Model Mondays Season 2 is currently scheduled to go from June to September, covering the 12 key topics shown below.

👉🏽👉🏽 Register for Upcoming Livestreams to get reminders
👉🏽👉🏽 Register for Upcoming AMAs to get reminders

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This Week In Model Mondays

Want an easy way to catch up on all the news? Check out This Week in Model Mondays - a recap written by Sharda Kaur. This first post is now live

Want to get weekly updates and recaps on what was covered on Model Mondays - and a sneak peek at what's coming next? Follow Sharda Kaur - a Gold Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador - as she recaps each week with a blog post on Friday!