For someone about to relaunch their career on the back of the growth in AI, visiting Bletchley Park seemed like a right of passage.
I’ve wanted to visit this amazing place for years and the stars aligned to create an opportunity that is very timely.
Last Friday I completed a six month journey to learn about many different aspects of AI via an excellent CPD accredited course at Portsmouth University.
It’s given me a foundational level of understanding of Machine Learning at code level and a wider fascination with the history of AI.
The wartime efforts to break German Enigma codes led to the development of modern computing and, in Alan Turing, someone who hypothesised about machines ultimately becoming as capable as humans in reasoning and general intelligence - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence
Now, a quarter of the way through the 21st Century, some argue that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could happen within the next 12 months.
While the second world war changed the human race in many ways, the arrival of AGI over 75 years after it was first imagined and articulated by Alan Turing marks an incredible milestone that is set to change the world in many new ways as yet imagined.
Given the current mainstream focus on AI it’s probably not a surprise that Bletchley Park itself has seized the opportunity to educate on 21st Century AI with a temporary exhibition that is very well produced and imagined.
‘The Age of AI’ takes visitors on a contemporary journey of how AI is now being applied in very tangible ways across a spectrum of industries and applications.
The exhibition doesn’t shy away from the growing risks of AI’s exponential growth and it was quite timely that my arrival at this part of Bletchley’s many fascinating displays coincided with a school party taking a look around.
An interactive part of the exhibition got visitors to vote on whether the videos and images being display were real or AI.
What struck me was that this group of schoolkids had no problem identifying which was which but I imagine a group of older adults would have really struggled.
That was a very tangible example to me of the inherent and immediate dangers of AI. The very real potential to influence people who are major decision makers in our society.
So I don’t worry for a minute about generations to come but I do worry massively about the generations now holding all the power and the power to have a massive and disproportionate effect on the world as a whole.
I didn’t really know a great deal of what to expect in visiting Bletchley Park other than there would be a bunch of ‘huts’ and a big mansion house.
I’m pleased I opted for the guided tour as the guide was extremely knowledgeable and presented the history of the site as we walked round flawlessly and with great humour.
His description of the mansion as an architectural dogs breakfast was funny but accurate. Apparently the wealthy gentleman who briefed the architect on what he wanted asked for an eclectic mixture of styles and that is very much reflected in the distinctive, if very confused, facade.
I also liked his description of why Bletchley Park was selected originally for its top secret mission.
It’s proximity to a major North/South railway line, the A5 (which was a major trunk road before the M1), it’s approximate equidistant between Oxford and Cambridge (the top source of code-breaking talent) and its proximity to a major GPO network hub that could be tapped into easily and provide excellent connectivity to the UK’s telecommunications network as it existed then.
Observations about three quarters of the eventual staff being women and the ‘talent’ being challenging to manage really resonated.
I can’t imagine how the reversal of that gender split could ever have worked given what staff were expected to do, the degree of secrecy about their work and the environment they had to work in.
I found the recreation of the office space in the mansion particularly poignant with its attention to detail. Look closely and you'll see the cardigans draped over the chairs and handbags placed near the desk legs.
While standing outside the mansion listening to the guide we learnt that there were several recruitment strategies to find the right people to take forward the code-breaking mission.
Talent scouts would scour top universities and educational establishments. They needed skilled linguists and these were often higher society women who had spent time in European countries at finishing schools and spoke multiple languages.
Sadly a prominent female code-breaker passed away yesterday aged 101. Betty Webb started working at Bletchley Park aged 18 in 1941 and her experiences were typical of the primarily female workforce - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Webb_(code_breaker)
Of course, putting all the talent recruitment eggs in the basket of elite universities would not have been a sensible strategy, so the net was cast further in ingenious and fascinating ways.
I'm currently reading a fascinating book that gives insight into how Bletchley talent scouts used everyday puzzles like daily newspaper crosswords as a recruitment tool. If a Telegraph or Times cryptic crossword could be completed in under 12 minutes the scouts were keen to talk to you about your potential role in helping the war effort.
Another great anecdote from the guide was about a certain Gordon Welchman who was a top talent at the Park but subsequently became notorious for writing a book about what happened during the war years in ‘Hut 6’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Welchman
It was published back in the 1970s and enraged the UK and US secret services and Governments as he hadn’t sought permission to release the account and it revealed intelligence methods that were still being used 30 years after the war ended.
Of course the stand out individual from Bletchley Park also has the saddest story.
The 2014 film 'The Imitation Game' went some way to shedding some light on Alan Turing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing - who's dogged determination to build a machine to crack the Enigma codes is credited with shortening the war against Hitler by two years and saving some 14 million lives (this is sometimes challenged but the work undoubtedly put the Nazis on the back foot).
His neuro-diverse nature (believed to be Asperger's) was very well portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film but there were a lot of inaccuracies in the story telling that become more apparent after a visit to Bletchley.
Having been recognised for his massive contribution to the allies beating the Germans, being awarded an MBE he was then cast aside by the UK Government due to his homosexuality and the act of being intimate with another man being deemed a crime.
A very poignant part of the displays is the letter written to the estate of Alan Turing by Gordon Brown in 2009 to apologise for how he was treated by his own Government.
Firstly it really is quite staggering for it to have taken so many years for the Government to apologise for an horrendous miscarriage of justice. Quite rightly, Turing pleaded 'not guilty' to the indecency charge brought against him because he didn't believe he had done anything wrong.
Secondly, in the society in which we live today it is equally staggering that a man could have been shamed to taking his own life simply for being himself.