Turing Institute Chief Scientist takes acting CEO role amid defense push

The Alan Turing Institute's Chief Scientist has temporarily stepped into the hot seat at the UK's flagship AI research organization after the long-flagged departure of CEO Jean Innes.

According to a statement from the Institute, "Professor Mark Girolami will be in post as acting CEO before handing over to a new CEO and resuming full duties as Chief Scientist."

He takes the reins from Dr Jean Innes, whose leadership of the Institute was rocked last year by an intervention from Peter Kyle, then Secretary of State for Science and Technology.

Kyle had demanded the Turing Institute focus on defense, national security, and sovereign capabilities. That represented a dramatic narrowing of its three-way focus on health, environment, and security, which had only been established a year earlier.

The minister had held the threat of defunding over the organization, warning that his department would only guarantee overall funding for the next year, and national security and defence funding for the following three.

Leadership fell in line with Kyle's demands, but Innes announced in September that she would step down "as the Institute completes the current transformation programme." This was pegged for the end of the year.

At the same time, the board "launched a process to appoint a new CEO who will oversee the next phase of the Institute that will see it step up its work on defence, national security and sovereign capabilities."

In October, it announced a "new science and innovation programme" with a heavy emphasis on defense, national security, and resilience, as well as the appointment of former RAF Air Commodore Blythe Crawford to advise the board.

At the time, it said the programme marked the "conclusion of an internal transformation process" and would be driven forward by the incoming CEO.

So far, though, there's no sign of a new appointment. A spokesperson for the Institute told us the timings for the CEO search were on track. "It has always been the plan to appoint an acting CEO. We'll provide a further update soon."

Kyle, meanwhile, moved on from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in September to become Secretary of State for Business and Trade and President of the Board of Trade.

Separately, the Turing Institute has released a new framework and self-assessment tool for organizations "to understand, evaluate, and improve their current regulation processes."

According to a statement, it "establishes benchmarks that enable regulators to assess their own AI regulation capabilities as well as facilitating constructive and precise conversations about potential gaps or areas for improvement." ®