Fri, 15 Aug 2025

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 UK's Turing AI Institute responds to staff anger about defence focus

Whistleblowers say the charity is at risk of collapse because it has been told by the government to focus on defence.

* The UK's national institute for AI has acknowledged "challenging" months for staff due to "substantial change".
* Staff have raised serious concerns in a whistleblowing complaint, warning that the charity is at risk of collapse after being told to prioritize defence and threatened with funding cuts.
* The Turing Institute has established a new senior working group, but whistleblowers say management's response is "performative" and nothing has changed.
* Management denies allegations of a toxic internal culture of "retaliation" and "defensiveness", saying they are committed to honesty, integrity, and transparency.
* Several senior staff have left the organization in recent months, and more redundancies or contract non-renewals are expected as part of the restructuring process.
* There has been no mention of replacing the current management team, despite calls for new leaders.
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