Employees of the Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national AI organisation, have expressed “serious and escalating concerns” over their jobs in a complaint to the Charity Commission.

Seen by the BBC, the complaint issues a series of accusations surrounding a misuse of public funds, a toxic work culture, and an overall failure in delivering the Institute’s mission.

The complaint comes weeks after Secretary of Science, Innovation, and Technology urged the Alan Turing Institute to change its areas of focus to defence rather than AI innovation risks, or potentially see its funding pulled.

A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) said that the Turing Institute “has been consulting on changes to refocus its work under its Turning 2.0 strategy.”

The Alan Turing Institute was not made aware of the complaint letter, which workers told the BBC was purposeful to avoid any retaliation.

The letter seen by the BBC marked a range of issues with the institute, ranging from poor leadership to a lack of transparency over spending.

Workers lamented about the Institute’s delivery failures, the instability of its governance and leadership, as well as mounting concern from its funders.

The internal culture was described as being “defined by fear and defensiveness.”

Workers wrote in the letter that they had brought these complaints to leadership, but “no meaningful action has been taken” since then.

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As AI technology continues to emerge, the Alan Turing Institute, which was founded in 2015, has been rocked by changes. Staff cuts and leadership changes have seen the Institute transform in recent years as many question its research acumen and prioritisation.

Co-directs Helen Margetts and Cosmina Dorobantu left the organisations in July, and former chief technology officer Jonathan Stark left his position in May.

Before the insistence from Kyle to focus on defence, the data science and AI research group had three key priorities – environmental sustainability, health, and national security.

As the UK attempts to champion AI and become an AI superpower, the independent charity has garnered renewed focus and scrutiny. The Turning 2.0 plan will see the Institute focus on defence and security applications of AI, and could see an spending review of its funding in the near future.

Now, the Charity Commission has said it is in the early stages of its assessment of the letter, but had yet to make any formal decisions regarding an investigation.