Newer & specialized labs
Openmind Research Institute
A non-profit research institute in Edmonton, founded by reinforcement-learning pioneer Richard Sutton and colleagues, doing basic research on how minds can form from computation.
Checked October 4, 2026
No lab publishes a real roadmap
So this page keeps three things apart on purpose. What has already shipped is dated. What is coming is listed only where the lab itself has said it in public, with the source named. Everything else sits under “What to watch” and is my own read of their shipping pattern — informed guessing, not news. If a date matters to you, check the lab's own page linked above.
What they are
Openmind Research Institute is a non-profit AI research institute in Edmonton, Canada, incorporated in November 2023. Its founders are Richard Sutton (a pioneer of reinforcement learning), Randy Goebel and Joseph Modayil.
It does basic research on how minds can form from computation — how agents can learn continually from experience, reason in unfamiliar settings and adapt their own architectures. Its starting point is The Alberta Plan for AI Research, a 12-step roadmap Sutton co-authored.
The institute ships no products or models. It commits to sharing all results publicly as papers and open-source code, with no intellectual-property restrictions.
What they currently ship
Every model in the directory entry, with its free-tier status.
- Note: Openmind ships no products or models — it is a basic-research institute. Everything it produces is papers and open-source code, shared publicly with no intellectual-property restrictions.
- Note: Its research follows The Alberta Plan for AI Research, a 12-step roadmap co-authored by Sutton toward continually learning agents.
What you get for free
The honest version, in one paragraph.
Fully free, because there is nothing to buy. Openmind sells no products and runs no paid API — its output is papers and open-source code that anyone can read and build on.
Track record
Things that actually happened, oldest first, each with a date.
- June 2023Richard Sutton announces the venture publicly; it is then a team of three.
- 1 November 2023Openmind Research Institute is incorporated as a Canadian non-profit, based in Edmonton.
- 24 November 2023The institute launches with an opening retreat in Banff, backed by $4.8 million in funding from Huawei Canada, as reported by The Globe and Mail.
- 2026The institute is recruiting Research Fellows and lists four fellows with published research proposals on its site.
Confirmed and announced
Only what the lab has stated in public. Nothing here rests on a rumor.
All research results will be shared publicly as papers and open-source code, with no intellectual-property restrictions.
Stated on the lab's own site
The research direction follows The Alberta Plan for AI Research, with the path expected to deviate as new evidence appears.
Stated on the lab's own site
What to watch
My own read of where this lab is heading, based on how it has shipped so far. Not announcements — treat these as questions to check, not facts.
- — The first published papers and open-source code from its research fellows.
- — How the fellowship program grows, and whether the Huawei funding draws further public scrutiny.