AMD pledges support for Oxford frontier AI research lab

AMD is planning to offer up to £5 million in support for a new lab in Oxford carrying out research into frontier AI.

The company has signed a memorandum of understanding to provide compute resources for researchers at the British Open-ended Learning and Discovery Lab (BOLD) during the lab's first eighteen months in operation.

BOLD is led by the University of Oxford, and brings together researchers affiliated with the University of Oxford, University College London, and Imperial College London.

They, together with AMD researchers, plan to explore initiatives spanning compute access, software optimization, research collaboration and open-source development.

Work could include experiments to explore model training techniques beyond backpropagation, discovery using multi-agent systems and adaptive physical AI.

The lab will be built around three research aims - new learning algorithms, human-centered AI and embodied systems such as robots - and will translate breakthroughs into open source tools and encourage commercial spin-outs.

“Through our memorandum of understanding with the BOLD lab, AMD is exploring bringing together advanced computing, open software and technical expertise to help researchers pursue ambitious new frontiers in AI," said Thomas Zacharia, senior vice president, global public sector and strategic partnerships at AMD.

"By expanding access to compute and supporting open academic research, our aim would be to help BOLD researchers accelerate experimentation and contribute to the UK’s leadership in AI innovation and scientific discovery.”

AMD to provide underpinning infrastructure

AMD plans to provide support through infrastructure that will be maintained by the company itself, along with cloud service providers, public-sector partnerships and hardware contributions.

Phase 1 of the research program will focus on broad exploratory experiments, with later phases following up select research directions and validating the most promising ideas.

The company said it will work with BOLD researchers across the AI technology stack, exploring novel ways to optimize AI workloads using its open software ecosystem.

The ecosystem envisaged by the MOU would be built on permissively licensed open-source projects such as AMD ROCm software. AMD would help BOLD researchers publish research software, benchmarks, and evaluation tools.

"BOLD aims to advance a more open, efficient and human-centered path for AI through collaboration between academia and industry. Working with AMD, the University of Oxford would combine world-leading research with computing technology to test ideas, learn quickly and translate breakthroughs into applications," said associate professor Jakob Foerster, of the University of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science.

"This support would help BOLD develop approaches to learning, human-AI collaboration and embodied intelligence while expanding open access to computing resources that benefit science, healthcare, education, transportation and public services globally.”

UK pledges continue

The MoU marks the latest in a number of UK-related pledges made by AMD in recent months.

In June, for example, the chipmaker announced plans to invest £2 billion in the UK to drive AI innovation and research. This also saw AMD pledge to expand access to compute resources for enterprises across the country.

Along with University College London-led research lab Science of Fundamental AI Research (SOFAIR), BOLD is to receive a share of £60 million in government funding over the next six years.

This funding forms part of the £1.6 billion UKRI AI Strategy, which aims to strengthen the UK’s leadership in AI over the next four years.

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