‘AI Alan Turing’ created by SKC Games set for Bletchley Park debut

The upcoming ‘AI Alan Turing’ interactive experience at Bletchley Park has been created by SKC Games in Haverhill, which has Cambridge-based Babita Devi on board as chief strategy officer.

The groundbreaking new exhibition format, which combines cutting-edge AI and facial recognition, is being guided by Babita.

The experienced mentor retains her roles as a coach at Accelerate Cambridge and at the Cambridge Judge Business School while she guides SKC along the path to its destiny of AI character development for the eagerly-awaited experience at the once-secret home of Britain’s WWII codebreakers.

SKC Games has developed a product – 1956 Individuals – to showcase its new technology. The creation of a virtual Alan Turing – perhaps the closest any of us will ever get to the father of today’s computer science – means visitors will have the unique opportunity to ask ‘him’ questions about his life, the Enigma cipher, and Bletchley Park’s vital role in World War Two.

The company was formed in 2019 and is a UK-based, independent video game developer specialising in AI-powered customer experiences. Initially focused on creating immersive game worlds, the studio identified a gap in the market for more engaging character interactions. They began developing non-player characters (NPCs) with complex personalities and backstories, which enhance player experiences through deeper connections with in-game characters.

This led to the development of advanced AI technology capable of real-time, engaging, and empathetic conversations with customers known as 1956 Individuals. Building on this expertise, the studio is now applying its technology to multiple sectors, including tourism and travel, to revolutionise visitor experiences through personalised and interactive AI characters.

The AI character utilises facial recognition, tailoring its responses based on whether it’s speaking with an individual, a group, or even children. This is a first – no one else has ever used facial recognition cameras to determine the numbers and demographics of an audience, and then tailor conversational responses accordingly.

“We couldn’t think of a better person to recreate in AI form than Alan Turing,” says Babita of the Cambridge-educated mathematician. “This is a new and exciting form of interpretation, and we applaud Bletchley Park for their ambition and imagination. Visitors will be able to engage with his story in a new and compelling way, hopefully getting to know him and Bletchley Park a little better.”

The founder and CEO of SKC Games is Asa Burrows.

“SKC Games is the company and 1956 Individuals is the product,” says Asa in a video call with Babita. “It’s a platform. The AI character we’ve built has a backend workflow system. Actions and activities are triggered in the backend.

“The AI Alan Turing is the first historical character we’re using and there is some tech that will be used for the first time at Bletchley Park. It’s software – everything is software – but it’s about the process.

“The system uses vision technology to see who it’s talking to. It can talk to individuals, it can determine the age profile to make sure the content is sensible – so the character talks to a child slightly differently from an adult – and other aspects of this vision technology will be used in another entertainment context. It’s clever tech which is used to assess the environment.”

SKC has invested heavily in research and development to advance natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning capabilities.

For 1956 Individuals the company has developed proprietary platforms for character creation, animation, and behaviour, enabling the team to rapidly iterate and refine its AI models. Through optimising these technologies, it has achieved significant improvements in character realism, responsiveness, and engagement.

Furthermore, its agile development methodologies “foster a culture of innovation and experimentation which allows us to rapidly adapt to emerging technologies and customer feedback, ensuring that our products remain at the forefront of the industry”.

Asa continues: “People can buy the product off the shelf or as a bespoke solution, as Bletchley Park did. The dataset we use for Bletchley Park is data they have collected about Alan Turing. That information is contributed, so there might be new information which is being put into the public domain.

“In this scenario it won’t be data off the internet, it’s bespoke data from their archives, which is agnostic to AI technologies. The main vertical we’re pitching is museums and attractions such as fairgrounds. We built the technology for our own game – Project UN, an open-world sc-ifi RPG game – and will make it available to other game studios after Project UN is launched.”

Meanwhile, the Bletchley Park exhibition is due to open in January.

“There will be an opening ceremony of some sort,” notes Asa.

The SKC team – currently 16 – is based at the EpiCentre on Haverhill Research Park.

“I became innovation director at the EpiCentre in November 2020,” she says. “I left after two years, then worked in the background with Asa, and joined on 1 August. It’s my first role in a games context.

“A lot of the work is around 1956 Individuals as a product, to grow and scale the business. We’re getting a huge amount of interest. The real challenge is can we grow quickly enough.”

There’s a lot of controversy around AI and deep fakes, and I’m curious to ask Asa and Babita on how they made the ethical decisions the project must have required. Asa, it turns out, is very keen to discuss the sensitivity involved in creating an AI likeness of Alan Turing.

“Obviously Alan Turing had a complicated life and unfortunately for him not a lot of people knew about him and this is one of the reasons why Bletchey has been very specific about how this is presented,” Asa says. “It 100 per cent is not about bringing Alan Turing back from the dead, the purpose is to tell his story in a way that’s interactive and fun.”

Babita adds: “It’s a way to really understand Alan Turing as an individual and an opportunity to converse with who he was and, for the younger generation, a way to understand who he was.

“SKC and Asa in particular are massively driven by education, and learning. It’s really important we come across with the education and understanding aspect of the experience...”

“And dong that without shying away from the difficult conversations,” adds Asa. “Bletchley Park is keen on that. A lot of information online about Turing is not accurate – ask Bletchley Park. It’s a subject we care about and a subject we want to do right by. As stakeholders, Bletchley gets to sign off on it.”

“Bletchley Park has been actively involved in every single step,” adds Babita.

“ So it’s a fair question – ‘will you be putting words into Alan Turing’s mouth?’ and the answer is ‘no’.”

SKC Games has embedded into its corporate DNA “a commitment to sustainability, ethical AI, quality, information security, and cyber resilience”.

A core part of its business philosophy is “to strive to develop technologies that have a positive impact on both people and the planet”.

A spokesperson for SKC adds: “To demonstrate our commitment to these values, SKC Games Studio has achieved ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Audit accreditation, ISO 9001 Quality Management certification, ISO 27001 Information Security Management System certification, and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation.”