When the UK government announced the creation of the Alan Turing Institute in 2014 it promised a “fitting memorial” to the renowned computer scientist and artificial intelligence pioneer.
More than a decade on, Britain’s leading AI institute is in turmoil as staff warn it may be in danger of collapse and ministers demand a shift in focus to defence and security work.
“The ATI brand is well recognised internationally,” says Dame Wendy Hall, a professor of computer science at the University of Southampton and the co-chair of a 2017 government AI review. “If it ceases to be the national institute for AI and data science then we are at risk of weakening our international leadership in AI.”
Turing’s legacy, as the mathematical genius who helped crack the Enigma code, outlined key concepts of AI and invented the eponymous test to discern whether a computer can show human intelligence, has been rebuilt and burnished in recent years.
In 2013 he received a posthumous royal pardon 59 years after his death, having been convicted of gross indecency in 1952 after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. A year later he was immortalised in the Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game and in 2021 he became the face of the £50 note.
A cornerstone of that legacy is in trouble, however. This month a group of staff filed a whistleblower complaint with the Charity Commission, which has a regulatory role over ATI because the nominally independent organisation is a registered charity – albeit largely funded by the UK government.
The complaint raised eight points of concern including the possibility that £100m of government funding might be withdrawn, which “could lead to the Institute’s collapse”.
Photograph: Bank Of England/Reuters
“These concerns are so significant that many staff now believe the institute’s charitable status and public credibility are at risk,” said the complaint, which also raised concerns about internal governance and culture as well as oversight of spending.
It is the latest in a series of staff broadsides at management. In March last year more than 180 staff wrote a letter to leadership expressing “serious concerns” about the organisation’s approach to diversity after it appointed four men to senior roles. In December more than 90 staff warned in another letter that ATI’s credibility was in “serious jeopardy” amid a restructuring that was threatening jobs – and research projects.
ATI has recently notified about 50 staff – or approximately 10% of its workforce – that they are at risk of redundancy and is shutting down projects related to online safety, tackling the housing crisis and reducing health inequality.
This is part of an overhaul dubbed Turing 2.0 under which the institute will focus on three key areas: health, the environment, and defence and security.
A recent letter from the UK technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has made clear the overhaul…
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