Staff fear the Turing AI Institute of the UK that runs a risk of collapsing

Employees of the National Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI) of the UK have warned that the charity runs the risk of collapsing, after technology secretary Peter Kyle threatened to withdraw his financing.

Employees of the Alan Turing Institute raised a series of “serious and escalating concerns” in a whistleblower complaint submitted to the Charity Commission.

The complaint, seen by the BBC, accuses the leadership of the Institute of Abuse of Public Funds, the supervision of a “toxic internal culture” and the omissions of the mission of charity.

A government spokesperson said that Kyle “was clear that he wants [the Turing Institute] To really supply your money for taxpayers “.

The spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) said that the Institute is “an independent organization and has discussed changes to reorient her work under its Turing 2.0 strategy”.

“The changes that have been set in his letter would do exactly that, giving the institute a key role in protecting our national security and positioning where the British public expects it will be,” they said.

It comes after Kyle encouraged the Turing Institute to concentrate on defense research and suggested that financing would be drawn unless it changed.

Kyle also wants a revision of his leadership. Every shift to focus on defense would be an important pivot for the organization funded by the government, which received a subsidy of £ 100 million by the previous conservative government last year.

The Turing Institute was founded in 2015 as the leading center of the UK of AI research and is startled by internal dissatisfaction and criticism of its research activities.

In the complaint, the staff said that Kyle’s letter had activated “a crisis on the board”.

The subsidy of £ 100 million from the government ran “now that the risk of being withdrawn, a movement that could lead to the collapse of the institute,” said the complaint.

The Turing Institute told the BBC that “the” substantial organizational change was performing to ensure that we make the promise and unique role of the National Institute for Data Science and AI of the UK realize “.

“As we continue, we are aimed at delivering real impact in the biggest challenges of society, including responding to the national need to double our work in defense, national security and sovereign capacities,” said a spokesperson.

The BBC has been told that the Turing Institute did not receive a notification of a complaint and has not seen the letter from the staff.

A spokesperson for a charity committee said: “We are currently assessing concern about the Alan Turing Institute to determine a regulatory role for us.”

They said it is in the early stages of this assessment and did not decide whether a formal legal investigation will be started.

The staff said they had submitted the complaint anonymously “because of a well -founded fear of retribution”.

The BBC is a copy of the complaint sent to an e -mail signed by “involved staff members of the Alan Turing Institute”.

The complaint contains a summary of eight issues.

Warning for a risk for financing, the complaint said that the “continuous delivery languages, management instability and the lack of transparency of the Turing Institute have caused serious concerns in its public and private financiers”.

It accuses the charity of making “a series of spending decisions that have no transparency, measurable results and proof of trustee supervision”.

And in other accusations, the complaint accuses the council of chairman of “an internal culture defined by fear and defensivity”.

The complaint said the concerns were expressed with the leadership team of the Turing Institute – including chairman Doug Gurr – and claimed that “no meaningful action was taken”.

The Alan Turing Institute describes itself as the national authority of the UK for Data Science and AI. It was founded by former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015.

The institute has been in turmoil for months during movements to reduce dozens of jobs and scrap research projects.

At the end of 2024, 93 employees signed a letter that expressed a lack of trust in his leadership team.

In March, Jean, who was appointed Chief Executive in July 2023, said the Financial Times that the Turing Institute needed to modernize AI projects and to concentrate.

Until recently, the work focused on AI and Data Science research in three important areas – environmentalness, health and national security.

Recent research projects on its website include the use of artificial technology in weather forecast, and a study that suggests that one in four children now uses the technology to study and play.

Others who have worked with the Turing Institute told the BBC that there are concerns within the broader research community about the direction of it.

In July, professors Helen Margetts and Cosmina Dorobantu, long-term co-director of a successful program that helped the public sector to use AI, stopped their positions at charity.

Former Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Starck left the organization in May after eight months.

And some of the remaining staff describe a poisonous internal culture.

The AI sector is an important part of the government’s strategy to grow the British economy – invest in the development of data centers and super computers and encourages large technology companies to invest.

Research and development of this rapidly evolving technology is also crucial.

In his letter to the Turing last month, Kyle said that stimulating the AI capacities of the UK “was crucial for national security and the core of the activities of the institute.

The State Secretary for Science and Technology said that next year there could be an overview of the ATIs “long -term financing scheme”.