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Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has written to the UK’s national institute for artificial intelligence (AI) to tell its bosses to refocus on defence and security.<\/p>\n
In a letter, Kyle said boosting the UK’s AI capabilities was “critical” to national security and should be at the core of the Alan Turing Institute’s activities.<\/p>\n
Kyle suggested the institute should overhaul its leadership team to reflect its “renewed purpose”.<\/p>\n
The cabinet minister said further government investment in the institute would depend on the “delivery of the vision” he had outlined in the letter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A spokesperson for the Alan Turing Institute said it welcomed “the recognition of our critical role and will continue to work closely with the government to support its priorities”.<\/p>\n
“The Turing is focussing on high-impact missions that support the UK’s sovereign AI capabilities, including in defence and national security,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“We share the government’s vision of AI transforming the UK for the better.”<\/p>\n
The letter comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer committed to a Nato alliance target of increasing UK defence spending to 5% of national income by 2035 and invest more in military uses of AI technology.<\/p>\n
A recent government review of UK defence<\/a> said “an immediate priority for force transformation should be a shift towards greater use of autonomy and artificial intelligence”.<\/p>\n Set up under Prime Minister David Cameron’s government as the National Institute for Data Science in 2015, the institute added AI to its remit two years later.<\/p>\n It receives public funding and was given a grant of \u00a3100m by the previous Conservative government last year.<\/p>\n The Turing institute’s work has focused on AI and data science research in three main areas – environmental sustainability, health and national security.<\/p>\n Lately, the institute has focused more on responsible AI and ethics, and one of its recent reports was on the increasing use of the tech by romance scammers.<\/p>\n But Kyle’s letter suggests the government wants the Turing institute to make defence its main priority, which would be a significant pivot for the organisation.<\/p>\n “There is an opportunity for the ATI to seize this moment,” Kyle wrote in the letter to the institute’s chairman, Dr Douglas Gurr.<\/p>\n “I believe the institute should build on its existing strengths, and reform itself further to prioritise its defence, national security and sovereign capabilities.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It’s been a turbulent few months for the institute, which finds itself in survival mode in 2025.<\/p>\n A review last year by UK Research and Innovation, the government funding body, found “a clear need for the governance and leadership structure of the Institute to evolve”.<\/p>\n At the end of 2024, 93 members of staff signed a letter expressing lack of confidence in its leadership team.<\/p>\n In March, Jean Innes, who was appointed chief executive in July 2023, said the Turing needed to modernise and focus on AI projects, in an interview with the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n She said “a big strategic shift to a much more focused agenda on a small number of problems that have an impact in the real world”.<\/p>\n