The future we build together: introducing Locai

Conventional wisdom says that it takes hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and compute to build a competitive foundational Large Language Model (LLM). 

The consensus that has solidified around this notion has led to a massive concentration of power in the hands of a few lavishly funded US and Chinese companies who dominate the marketplace and a lack of consumer choice whereby we get the AI we are given, trading privacy and sovereignty for performance and convenience. 

It’s clear that we are living through one of the greatest technological shifts in human history. AI is writing our emails, drafting our policies, and shaping our decisions. Yet the controls of this transformative power have been seized by a handful of companies, steering the course of our collective future whilst the rest of us watch from the backseat.  

In our view, the future should not be outsourced. It should be authored. By us. For us. In our own words. So, over the past two years, Locai Labs has been working to develop an alternative.

Our work has been guided by a new vision for artificial intelligence that we call Community AI, or Co-AI.  

Co-AI is our vision for a collaborative, open, and community-driven global AI built in partnership with our users, not imposed on them.

Today we are excited to launch Early Access to our first two Co-AI products: 

- Locai L1-Large: the UK's first foundational LLM that surpasses GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen and Mistral to claim the no.1 rank on Arena Hard v2 (the industry’s leading benchmark for conversational ability and human preference), whilst delivering top-tier results across mathematics, scientific reasoning, and instruction-following benchmarks.

- Locai: a best-in-class General AI Assistant powered by Locai L-1 Large.

Combining world-class performance and extensive personalisation options with a privacy-by-default approach, Locai is an AI Assistant for anyone wanting more choice - and voice - in the development of advanced AI. 

Locai never trains on user data without consent, consumes only a fraction of the energy and cost of Big Tech AI assistants and has been trained in the UK on computers powered by 100% renewable energy.

Don't delay, become a Locai Member today 

While we are in Early Access we are operating a Waitlist, but Locai Members can skip the line.

Both membership tiers come with benefits, but only Founding Members will have their names written into the model and the application's history. Founding Memberships are limited - once they're gone, they're gone! 

We are building with our users, not on them

From day one, Locai users can vote on future features on our public roadmap, suggest new functionality and tools that would help them solve real, meaningful problems in their lives and work. We want to hear from the Locai community what it is they want to see from their platform.

As our user numbers grow, Locai will become, quite literally, community-powered through a community-driven blockchain network, allowing Locai users themselves to contribute computing resources (AKA "distributed compute"), to shape the development of the model and share in the value created by the Locai platform.

We want Locai to be shaped by the needs, goals and values of those who use and help build it - people like you. It’s great to have you with us. 

Welcome to Co-AI. 

Welcome to Locai. 

We’re just getting started.