I can’t say enough good things about John Carmack @IDAACarmack and his Keen Technologies. But now Khurram Javed @kjaved_ and I have broken away to start our own startup and pursue a slightly different path toward understanding intelligence. Like Keen (and like Ineffable) we at Oak Lab @oaklab_ai believe in reinforcement learning and that intelligence is created and maintained from run-time experience. But we think current deep learning methods are weak and inefficient, and need not more tweaks, but fundamentally new ideas and a thorough reworking before they can provide a solid foundation for achieving the more ambitious goals of AI.
Richard S.
Brief
Richard S. Sutton announced on 2026-07-13 that he and Khurram Javed have left John Carmack's Keen Technologies to start Oak Lab (@oaklab_ai). Oak Lab endorses reinforcement learning and run-time experience as central to intelligence while arguing current deep learning is "weak and inefficient" and needs fundamental reworking, not incremental fixes, to reach ambitious AI objectives.
Why it matters
Richard S. Sutton announced on 2026-07-13 that he and Khurram Javed have broken away from John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) and Keen Technologies to found a new startup, Oak Lab (@oaklab_ai).
Key details
- Oak Lab affirms reinforcement learning and run-time experience as the basis for intelligence but claims current deep learning methods are "weak and inefficient" and require fundamentally new ideas and a thorough reworking (not mere tweaks) to support more ambitious AI goals; Sutton positions Oak Lab's path as distinct from Keen and Ineffable.