ARIA Scaling Inference Lab to test Lumai Iris servers

The UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency's Scaling Inference Lab will deploy Oxford startup Lumai’s Iris servers to test optical AI computing in a commercial data centre. Backed by £50M from ARIA and run by nonprofit CommonAI, the lab will test how the light-based systems handle real AI models, power, and cooling. Lumai claims its technology can significantly reduce data centre power usage, though these figures have not yet been independently verified. Open article →