Oxford and UCL to host new\u00a0government-backed labs developing the next generation of AI that more businesses and services can readily use
\n AI is already helping to\u00a0diagnose cancer sooner and\u00a0make\u00a0our energy\u00a0systems more resilient\u00a0– these\u00a02 new\u00a0labs will ensure British people continue to benefit as the technology advances
\n Backed with up to\u00a0\u00a360 million and access to large-scale computing power, the labs will build the foundations for the next wave of AI breakthroughs to be made in Britain<\/p>\n
Two new research labs led\u00a0by\u00a0Oxford and University College London will share up to\u00a0\u00a360 million\u00a0in\u00a0government\u00a0funding\u00a0to\u00a0develop\u00a0new\u00a0breakthroughs in AI\u00a0on\u00a0British shores, it has been announced today (Tuesday 23 June).<\/p>\n
AI\u202fhas\u00a0quickly\u00a0gone from being the staple of science fiction to\u00a0something people\u00a0use\u00a0everyday\u00a0\u2013 at work,\u00a0in schools\u00a0and public services.\u00a0That includes in hospitals\u00a0where\u00a0it is\u00a0screening\u00a0patients for cancer,\u00a0in the energy sector\u00a0designing\u00a0better\u00a0batteries, and accelerating\u00a0drug\u00a0discovery\u00a0in medicine.<\/p>\n
But\u00a0we are still only scratching the surface of what AI could potentially deliver for the economy, public services, and society. The UK is uniquely placed to spearhead the fundamental work that could make\u00a0AI\u00a0cheaper to run, more dependable,\u00a0and easier for businesses,\u00a0researchers\u00a0and public services across the UK to adopt and use.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the labs will open up entirely new avenues for what AI can do \u2013 from building open-source technologies that run on widely available hardware, which could include ordinary\u00a0consumer\u00a0computers,\u00a0to rethinking how AI systems learn without\u00a0requiring\u00a0vast centralised computing power.<\/p>\n
By focusing\u00a0on\u00a0changes\u00a0to\u00a0the fundamentals of AI that could\u00a0lower\u00a0costs and\u00a0improve\u00a0performance, the work will help\u00a0open\u00a0AI to far more organisations \u2013 supporting new breakthroughs, boosting\u00a0productivity\u00a0and accelerating innovation across the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With some of the world\u2019s leading universities at the heart, the UK is uniquely placed to lead this work\u00a0\u2013 helping to shore up our\u00a0economic and\u00a0national\u00a0security.<\/p>\n
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said:<\/p>\n
We are only just beginning to unlock\u00a0AI\u2019s\u00a0huge potential\u00a0to grow our economy and improve\u00a0our\u00a0public services. With our world-leading universities and deep pool of AI\u00a0expertise, Britain can set the agenda for what comes next.<\/p>\n
These new labs\u00a0will lead the world in the fundamental work that is set to make\u00a0AI cheaper, more practical and easier to\u00a0adopt\u00a0so more businesses and public services across the UK can benefit.<\/p>\n
And by building this capability here\u00a0at home, backed by our world leading\u00a0universities, we\u2019re strengthening our own expertise,\u00a0reducing\u00a0reliance on others\u00a0and securing Britain\u2019s place at the forefront of this technology\u00a0\u2013\u00a0fittingly announced on what would have been Alan Turing\u2019s 114th\u00a0birthday.<\/p>\n
UCL Lead Professor David Barber said:<\/p>\n
We\u2019re\u00a0very excited\u00a0that UCL will be the leading the new SOFAIR Lab. While current AI systems are impressive, many still suffer from basic issues such as inaccurate responses to questions. These systems often use similar underlying architectures, so SOFAIR will bring together the broader sciences and fresh ideas to create a new generation of open-source models. This will reduce dependency on the small number of\u00a0model providers, boosting UK sovereignty and its position as a global player in AI.<\/p>\n
Oxford University\u00a0Associate Professor Jakob Foerster\u00a0said:<\/p>\n
The UK cannot win the global AI race simply by trying to outspend the largest technology companies on data and compute. BOLD is about a different route: discovering fundamentally new ways to build AI that are more efficient, more open\u00a0and better aligned with human needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By focusing on new paradigms for learning, rather than only scaling existing methods, we aim to help secure the UK\u2019s sovereign capability in AI and ensure that academic research can shape the future of the field.<\/p>\n
Professor Charlotte Deane, Senior Responsible Owner for the UKRI AI Programme and Executive Chair of EPSRC, said:<\/p>\n
The UK is already one of the world\u2019s leading nations in AI research.<\/p>\n
We are one of the few countries in the world with all the right ingredients, from a deep pool of top AI experts to world-class universities.<\/p>\n
These labs will put that advantage to work, backing the bold, high-reward ideas that can shape the future of AI. We look forward to working with the labs to maximise the benefits for the UK.<\/p>\n
The Science of Fundamental AI Research (SOFAIR) Lab will develop new open-source AI technologies\u00a0that can run\u00a0on widely available hardware.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Led by Professor David Barber at UCL alongside the universities of Cambridge,\u00a0Oxford\u00a0and Edinburgh, it will bring together researchers from\u00a0across\u00a0computer science, mathematics,\u00a0statistics\u00a0and neuroscience to explore new\u00a0ways to\u00a0design\u00a0AI\u00a0systems.\u00a0This will make\u00a0advanced AI\u00a0tools\u00a0cheaper and more\u00a0accessible<\/p>\n
The British Open-ended Learning and Discovery (BOLD) Lab will\u00a0rethink how AI learns from the world around us.<\/p>\n
Led by Professor Jakob Foerster at the University of Oxford, with UCL and Imperial College London,\u00a0the\u00a0lab\u00a0will develop systems\u00a0that can\u00a0learn more efficiently, adapt to new situations and navigate physical spaces.\u00a0By focusing on practical, human centred AI, the lab will help turn research into tools that can be used in workplaces,\u00a0infrastructure\u00a0and public services \u2013 supporting wider adoption across the economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Government is making up to\u00a0\u00a360 million available\u00a0through UKRI\u2019s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)\u00a0to support these labs over the next\u00a06 years,\u00a0alongside access to\u00a0large\u00a0scale computing power worth tens of millions of pounds \u2013 essentially the processing power to run and train AI models.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s announcement goes further than first planned,\u00a0doubling the number of labs from one to two and increasing total investment from \u00a340 million to up to \u00a360 million\u00a0–\u00a0reflecting the\u00a0scale of opportunity for the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both labs will invest in top AI researchers at every career stage, with \u00a32 million per lab earmarked for hiring at least 10 doctoral students\u00a0\u2013 helping to\u00a0build and grow the UK\u2019s talent.\u00a0The labs will also work closely with existing leaders in British AI research like the Alan Turing Institute and\u00a0UKRI\u2019s AI research\u00a0hubs.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0funding forms part of the\u00a0UKRI\u202fAI\u202fStrategy\u00a0\u2013 a \u00a31.6 billion plan to strengthen the UK\u2019s\u00a0leadership\u00a0in AI over the next 4 years.\u00a0With world-class universities, leading researchers and a growing AI sector, the UK is well placed not just to develop AI, but to ensure more organisations can use it -strengthening the country\u2019s capability,\u00a0resilience\u00a0and long-term growth.<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oxford and UCL to host new\u00a0government-backed labs developing the next generation of AI that more businesses and services…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-653974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}