The staff of the first artificial intelligence institute of the United Kingdom raised concerns concerning governance and internal culture of the organization in a complaint denounced to the guard dog of the charity.
Alan Turing Institute (ATI), a recorded charity with substantial state funding, is under pressure from the government to revise its strategic objective and its leadership after an intervention last month with the Secretary of Technology, Peter Kyle.
In a complaint with the Charity Commission, a group of ATI staff members raises eight points of concern and said that the Institute is likely to collapse due to the government’s threats concerning its funding.
The complaint alleges that the board of directors, chaired by the former boss of Amazon Uk Doug Gurr, failed to fulfill the basic legal tasks such as the supply of strategic orientation and responsibility, the personnel alleging that a letter of non-confidence was delivered last year and not acted.
An ATI spokesperson said that the charitable committee had not been in contact with the Institute on complaints that may have been sent to the organization. They added that a denunciation complaint had been filed last year to the British research and innovation organization of the government, which finances ATI, and a subsequent independent investigation found no concern.
The complaint comes after the ATI, which undergoes a restructuring, informed around 50 employees – or around 10% of its workforce – which they risked redundancy.
He claims that the financing of the ATI is at risk, invoking “private concerns” of the nameless industrial partners, while warning that Kyle clearly indicated that the future support of the government depends on the improvement of the delivery and the change of leadership.
In a letter to Gurr this month, Kyle called for a change in defense and national security to ATI, as well as leadership changes. Although the letter indicated that the ATI should “continue to receive the funding necessary to implement reforms”, he said that his “longer -term financing agreement” could be examined next year.
The complaint claims that there was no internal or external responsibility for the way the ATI funds were used. He alleys that there is an internal culture of “fear, exclusion and defensive”.
He also alleges that the board of directors did not offer adequate surveillance of a series of senior departure departures under the chief executive officer, Jean Innes, nor of management appointments, and that the credibility of the ATI with “staff, donors, partners and the wider public have been considerably compromised”, as shown in the letter of non-confidence and the intervention of Kyle.
The Guardian also learned that the ATI closes the online security projects, to tackle the housing crisis and to reduce health inequalities in the context of its restructuring, which leads to Mithe’s closure or ends of several research aspects.
The restructuring triggered internal upheavals in Ati, with more than 90 employees sending a letter to the board of directors last year warning that cost reductions put the reputation of the organization in danger.
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Among the projects provided for the closure are on the development of AI systems to detect online damage, the production of AI tools which can help political decision -makers attack problems such as inequality and affordability on the housing market and the measurement of the impact on the inequality of health of the main political decisions such as locking.
The other projects that should close include an AI -based analysis on how the government and the media interact. A project examining social prejudices in AI results will also be abandoned. Pause projects include a study on how AI could affect human rights and democracy, as well as research on the creation of a global AI ethics approach.
An ATI spokesperson said: “We are shaping a new phase for Turing, which requires substantial organizational change to make sure to play the promise and the unique role of the National Kingdom Institute for Data Sciences and AI. As we go ahead, we focus on the supply of a national security impact, including nationals.
A spokesperson for the Charity Commission said that the organization could not confirm or deny if it had received a complaint, in order to protect the identity of the denunciators.
