The UK government has announced up to £60 million in funding for two new artificial intelligence research labs that it said will focus on making AI cheaper, more reliable and easier for businesses and public services to adopt.
Led by researchers at University College London and the University of Oxford, the new facilities will receive funding through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and will provide access to large-scale computing resources worth tens of millions of pounds.
The first lab, the Science of Fundamental AI Research Lab, will be led by Professor David Barber at UCL in partnership with the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh. The lab will focus on developing open-source AI technologies that can run on more widely available hardware, potentially reducing dependence on expensive computing infrastructure.
The second lab, the British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab, will be led by Professor Jakob Foerster at Oxford, alongside UCL and Imperial College London. Researchers will explore new approaches to AI learning that require less computing power and can adapt more effectively to changing environments.
The government said the research could help make AI systems more accessible to organisations that lack the resources to deploy today’s large-scale models, opening up new opportunities across healthcare, public services and industry.
A key focus of both labs will be creating alternatives to the current generation of AI models, which often require vast amounts of computing power and are controlled by a small number of technology companies.
Both labs will also receive dedicated funding to develop AI talent, with £2 million allocated to each centre to recruit at least 10 doctoral students.
The initiative forms part of UKRI’s £1.6 billion AI strategy, which aims to strengthen Britain’s position as a global AI research hub while supporting wider adoption of the technology across the economy.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said the new labs will lead the world in the fundamental work that is set to make AI cheaper, more practical and easier to adopt so more businesses and public services across the UK can benefit.
“We are only just beginning to unlock AI’s huge potential to grow our economy and improve our public services,” he added. “By building this capability here at home, backed by our world leading universities, we’re strengthening our own expertise, reducing reliance on others and securing Britain’s place at the forefront of this technology, fittingly announced on what would have been Alan Turing’s 114th birthday.”
