UK’s Turing AI Institute bosses respond to staff anger in letter

The heads of the UK’s national institute for artificial intelligence (AI) have told staff they accept recent months have been “challenging” for staff as the charity undergoes “substantial” change.

It comes after staff raised “serious and escalating concerns” in a whistleblowing complaint this week submitted to the Charity Commission.

They warned the charity – which receives £100m from the government – is at risk of collapse after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle instructed it to prioritise defence, and threatened to pull its funding if it did not.

In a letter seen by the BBC, Chair Dr Doug Gurr said the Turing institute would “step up at a time of national need”.

He said it had already established a new senior working group comprising government officials and Turing institute staff.

But whistleblowers have described the management’s response as “performative”.

“Just talk, no action, nothing has changed,” they said, speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity because they fear losing their jobs for speaking out.

Dr Gurr and Chief Executive Dr Jean Innes did not respond directly to accusations by the whistleblowers about a toxic internal culture of “retaliation” and “defensiveness”.

The pair said they had not seen the letter sent from whistleblowers to the Charity Commission, which has been shared with the BBC.

“We are committed to conducting our business with honesty, integrity and transparency and believe that a culture of openness and accountability is essential,” they wrote, and linked to the Turing institute’s whistleblowing guidelines.

The whistleblowers and Peter Kyle have all called for an overhaul of leadership – but there was no mention of any change in the management team.

A number of senior staff have left the organisation in recent months, and bosses said more people would either be made redundant or not have their contracts renewed as the restructure continues.