The UK Government’s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has warned that the publicly backed Alan Turing Institute must refocus its efforts on defence and security.

In the letter, Kyle said that the UK’s institute for data science and AI should prioritise ‘sovereign capabilities’, referring to the country’s ability to produce and maintain nationally important AI systems using only its own data, infrastructure, workforce, and networks.

“Moving forward, defence and national security projects should form a core of ATI’s activities, and relationships with the UK’s security, defence, and intelligence communities should be strengthened accordingly,” said Kyle.

Kyle reportedly told the Institute’s chair, Doug Garr, that its recently secured £100 million five-year funding arrangement could be reviewed as early as next year to ensure the shift to a national security-first approach.

Under the funding package, agreed with the previous government, the Institute focused on addressing national challenges access three core areas, namely health, environment and sustainability, and defence and security. 

Implying that two of these three ‘core areas’ will now be downgraded, the tech secretary said that the government will ‘maintain [the Turing Institute’s] current level of R&D funding from national security and defence’ for three years, and would look to add more defence and national security staff to the Turing’s ranks.

“Whilst acknowledging the ATI is an independent organisation, its current reliance on public funding means that it is imperative that this resource is being maximised and is delivering value for money for citizens,” Kyle wrote.

The letter, first reported by Politico, also demanded other personnel changes at the executive level, with Kyle writing that it is ‘imperative that the ATI’s leadership reflects the institute’s reformed focus’.

Already undergoing a major restructuring, including launching a redundancy consultation process in October, Kyle told the Institute that it should now look to appoint an executive team with the right background and industry knowledge to help shift focus toward defence and security.      

The demand marks a major turning point for the Turing Institute, which was first established in 2015 with the clear and compelling purpose ‘to make great leaps in the development and use of data science and artificial intelligence, in order to change the world for the better.’ 

In 2023, the Institute reassessed its overall ambitions with a new strategy, Turing 2.0, aiming to become internationally recognised as a centre of research and innovation within ten years, using the power of data science and AI to ‘make a lasting impact on the world’s most pressing societal issues’.

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Speaking to the Guardian, Dame Wendy Hall, co-chair of a 2017 review into AI for the government, said that under the plans, the Turing Institute would no longer be a national institute for AI, saying, “If the government wants an AI institute that does defence and security then it should just call it that.”

Other recent moves suggest that the government is increasingly looking to emerging tech to bolster national defence. 

In February, Labour announced that it was rebranding the UK’s AI Safety Institute as the ‘AI Security Institute’, signifying a foundational change to the guiding principles of the country’s approach to the development of AI.

The newly minted AI Security Institute’s remit is dealing with serious AI risks with national security implications, such as how the technology might be used for the creation of chemical and biological weapons, for sophisticated cyber-attacks, or to enable crimes such as fraud.