OpenAI Announces Major Expansion of London Office

OpenAI has announced plans to crook its London bureau into its largest probe hub extracurricular of the United States.

The company—which established a UK bureau successful 2023—says it volition grow its London-based probe team, scooping up endowment emerging from starring British universities. It has not indicated however galore researchers it volition hire.

“The UK brings unneurotic satellite people endowment and starring technological institutions and universities, making it an perfect spot to present the important probe which volition guarantee our AI is safe, utile and benefits everyone,” said Mark Chen, main probe serviceman astatine OpenAI, successful a statement.

The plans bring OpenAI into nonstop contention for apical probe endowment with Google DeepMind, the AI laboratory tally by British researcher Demis Hassabis, which is headquartered successful London. DeepMind has long-running partnerships with Oxford University and the University of Cambridge, wherever it sponsors professorships, funds research, and works alongside researchers.

At the latest careers just astatine Oxford University, the level was packed with undergraduates looking for method roles and recruiters hiring for AI-related positions.“The request and proviso is expanding connected some sides, adjacent wrong a year,” says Jonathan Black, manager of the careers work astatine Oxford University. “To person thing similar this crook up is simply a truly affirmative sign.”

OpenAI’s squad successful London volition proceed to lend to products similar Codex and GPT-5.2, the institution says, but volition present “own” definite aspects of exemplary improvement relating to safety, reliability, and show evaluation.

In a statement, the UK’s subject and exertion secretary, Liz Kendall, described the announcement arsenic “a immense ballot of assurance successful the UK’s world-leading presumption astatine the cutting borderline of AI research.”

The announcement coincides with a propulsion successful the UK to standard the nation’s information halfway and powerfulness infrastructure to conscionable the voracious request for compute among AI companies, including OpenAI.