Two leading British universities, Oxford and University College London (UCL), have been selected to host new government-backed AI research laboratories. The initiative, announced today, will see the institutions share up to £60 million in funding, alongside access to large-scale computing power, with the goal of fostering the next generation of artificial intelligence breakthroughs in the UK.
The investment is designed to make AI technology more affordable to operate, more reliable in its performance, and simpler for a broader range of businesses, researchers, and public services to integrate and utilise. While AI already plays a significant role in various sectors, from expediting cancer diagnoses to enhancing the resilience of energy systems, the government believes the UK is uniquely positioned to lead fundamental research that can unlock its full potential.
Supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the new labs will explore novel approaches to AI development. This includes building open-source technologies that can function on widely available hardware, such as standard consumer computers, and re-evaluating how AI systems acquire knowledge without demanding extensive centralised computing power. By focusing on these foundational changes, the project aims to significantly lower costs and improve performance, thereby opening up AI to a much wider array of organisations, boosting productivity, and accelerating innovation across the country.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan emphasised the vast potential of AI to stimulate economic growth and enhance public services. He stated that the new labs would position Britain at the forefront of fundamental research, making AI more practical and accessible. Mr Narayan also highlighted that developing this capability domestically, supported by world-leading universities, would strengthen the UK's expertise, reduce reliance on external providers, and secure the nation's leadership in this critical technology. The announcement was made on what would have been Alan Turing's 114th birthday.
Professor David Barber, lead for the new SOFAIR Lab at UCL, expressed excitement about the venture, noting that while current AI systems are impressive, they often suffer from inaccuracies. He explained that SOFAIR would integrate broader scientific principles and innovative ideas to create a new generation of open-source models, thereby reducing dependency on a limited number of model providers and enhancing the UK's sovereignty in AI. Similarly, Associate Professor Jakob Foerster from Oxford University, leading the BOLD lab, stressed that the UK cannot solely compete with larger technology companies by outspending them on data and compute. Instead, BOLD will focus on discovering fundamentally new, more efficient, open, and human-aligned ways to build AI, ensuring academic research shapes the field's future and secures the UK's sovereign AI capability.