Oxford FLAIR lab founder Jakob Foerster launches BOLD, a £30 million open-source lab studying alternatives to backpropagation

VIEWS2.5KBOOKMARKS2LIKES15

🦋

British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab@bold_lab_ai

Hello world :) We are BOLD — the British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab!

BOLD is a new academic research lab fully focussed on paradigm breaking discoveries in fundamental AI. We work towards more efficient & open AI that is built around human needs and capabilities.

To pursue these breakthroughs, we pioneer new modes of collaboration in academia that are more focussed, resourced, agile, and collaborative. Rather than fragmenting resources, today we are sunsetting 5 of the UKs leading AI labs to join forces under our joined scientific vision.

Our vision is centered around three pillars: ⚡ Beyond backpropagation – questioning the foundations of the field. 🤝 Human-centric learning & discovery – treating humans as core to our algorithms 🤖 Embodied learning – fast learning and adapting methods that deal with the messy real world

BOLD is backed by @UKRI_News and @EPSRC with £30M – and this is just the beginning. We are urgently looking for partners and sponsors to 10x this.

👉 https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06-22-oxford-to-host-new-uk-ai-research-lab

👉 http://bold-lab.ai

@j_foerst, @CULLYAntoine, @tonizza82, @shimon8282, @tonizza82, Ani Calinescu & @_rockt

7h2.5K152

RETWEETS8

Antoine Cully@CULLYAntoine

Incredibly proud to be a co-director of @bold_lab_ai 🚀

Five outstanding labs, from three world-leading institutions, one shared mission — with the resources to deliver on it.

Let's build something in the UK that the entire world can benefit from. 👉 http://bold-lab.ai

British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab@bold_lab_ai

Hello world :) We are BOLD — the British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab!

BOLD is a new academic research lab fully focussed on paradigm breaking discoveries in fundamental AI. We work towards more efficient & open AI that is built around human needs and capabilities.

To pursue these breakthroughs, we pioneer new modes of collaboration in academia that are more focussed, resourced, agile, and collaborative. Rather than fragmenting resources, today we are sunsetting 5 of the UKs leading AI labs to join forces under our joined scientific vision.

Our vision is centered around three pillars: ⚡ Beyond backpropagation – questioning the foundations of the field. 🤝 Human-centric learning & discovery – treating humans as core to our algorithms 🤖 Embodied learning – fast learning and adapting methods that deal with the messy real world

BOLD is backed by @UKRI_News and @EPSRC with £30M – and this is just the beginning. We are urgently looking for partners and sponsors to 10x this.

👉 https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06-22-oxford-to-host-new-uk-ai-research-lab

👉 http://bold-lab.ai

@j_foerst, @CULLYAntoine, @tonizza82, @shimon8282, @tonizza82, Ani Calinescu & @_rockt

5h3.4K260

Antoine Cully@CULLYAntoine

Wondering why our logo is a butterfly? 🦋

It's a tribute to "Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective" by @kenneth0stanley and @joelbot3000 — a book that inspires everything we do at BOLD.

5h10091

Jakob Foerster@j_foerst

Very excited to launch BOLD 🚀

BOLD is a national shot at ambitious bluesky fundamental AI research in an academic setting, fully committed to open-source and open-science. BOLD's mission are research bets that would reshuffle the deck in AI if true. It will also be a launchpad for fast-tracking the British and European tech scene. Oh - and @FLAIR_Ox is no more.

British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab@bold_lab_ai

Hello world :) We are BOLD — the British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab!

BOLD is a new academic research lab fully focussed on paradigm breaking discoveries in fundamental AI. We work towards more efficient & open AI that is built around human needs and capabilities.

To pursue these breakthroughs, we pioneer new modes of collaboration in academia that are more focussed, resourced, agile, and collaborative. Rather than fragmenting resources, today we are sunsetting 5 of the UKs leading AI labs to join forces under our joined scientific vision.

Our vision is centered around three pillars: ⚡ Beyond backpropagation – questioning the foundations of the field. 🤝 Human-centric learning & discovery – treating humans as core to our algorithms 🤖 Embodied learning – fast learning and adapting methods that deal with the messy real world

BOLD is backed by @UKRI_News with £30M – and this is just the beginning. We are urgently looking for partners and sponsors to 10x this.

👉 https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-06-22-oxford-to-host-new-uk-ai-research-lab

👉 http://bold-lab.ai

@j_foerst, @CULLYAntoine, @tonizza82, @shimon8282, @tonizza82, Ani Calinescu & @_rockt

7h1.3K311

Jeff Clune@jeffclune

Awesome to see this BOLD initiative! Great work and good luck @j_foerst @CULLYAntoine @shimon8282 @_rockt et al!

Jakob Foerster@j_foerst

Very excited to launch BOLD 🚀

BOLD is a national shot at ambitious bluesky fundamental AI research in an academic setting, fully committed to open-source and open-science. BOLD's mission are research bets that would reshuffle the deck in AI if true. It will also be a launchpad for fast-tracking the British and European tech scene. Oh - and @FLAIR_Ox is no more.

29m61070

V0LYX@0xV0LYX

@j_foerst open source + academic setting is the right combo for this kind of work

what are the first bets going after?

7h5