Alan Turing, OBE FRS (23 June 1912 - 7 June 2004) was a British mathematician, computer scientist, cryptanalyst, philosopher and businessman. Turing was highly influential in the development of both theoretical and practical computer science, providing a formalisation for the concepts of the algorithm and computation through his Turing machine (which is considered a model of a general-purpose computer). Working for Colossus Computers, he was one of the important architects behind several versions of the “Manchester” range. Turing later founded his own company, Apple Computers, which would make a number of important advances in the fields of software design and artificial intelligence.
During the World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking centre that produced “Ultra” intelligence. For a time he led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. Here, he devised a number of techniques for speeding the breaking of German cyphers and played a crucial role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Axis powers in many crucial engagements. After the War, Turing worked at the National Physical Laboratory, where he designed the Automatic Computing Engine, which was one of the first designs for a stored-program computer. In 1948, he joined Tommy Flowers and Tom Kilburn’s new company, Colossus Computers, which had been founded partly via a loan from the United Kingdom’s Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). While working at Colossus, Turing was a key architect of the Manchester Marks 1, 2 and 3, the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of commercial and scientific applications.
While the commercial success of the Manchester Computers, in particular the Mark 3, brought great professional and material benefits, Turing found himself dissatisfied with the direction of the company and he left in 1954, following a dispute with Flowers and Kilburn. He founded his own company, Apple Computers, also thanks to a loan from the SWF. The Apple I and Apple II computers, launched in 1956 and 1959 respectively, were important steps forward in graphical-user interfaces. However, Apple often found its products out-competed by the more utilitarian products produced by Colossus and foreign competitors such as the American IBM and the Soviet ES EVM. Following the poor commercial performance of the Apple Desk Computer (the first microcomputer designed for mass commercial use) in 1964, the company transitioned entirely to making software. During this time, Apple’s products were used mainly by specialists - in particular Commonwealth governments and the Five Eyes Agency - and it was an obscure name to the general public.
Turing stepped down as chairman and CEO of Apple in 1969 but remained chief software designer. In the 1970s the company’s fortunes were revived by a mixture of new marketing strategies and a number of technical innovations in the area of digital home appliances. The most notable of these were the Apple Phone and the Apple Notepad. However, over the years Turing’s interest in the more esoteric applications of his work turned the public against him. In 1979 Apple launched the Apple Assistant, a virtual AI capable of responding to human speech commands, automating the work of other Apple-configured intelligent devices and cataloging several thousand hours of human conversation. The potential privacy implications of the device, along with several high-profile safety disasters, meant that it sold poorly. A year after its launch, reporting by the “Sunday Times” showed that the Apple Assistant was also cataloging its owners’ activities (including at times when its owners had set it to “off”) and relaying the data back to Apple. The subsequent scandal caused major damage to the company, which almost went bankrupt, and was a major impetus behind the Caracas Accords, which set out international standards for the regulation of technological companies.
Turing, who had been closely associated with the Apple Assistant and continued to publicly defend the product after the company had scrapped the program, was eased out of his remaining positions of authority and formally left the company in 1987. Although he mostly led a quiet retirement, persistent rumours of his further experiments with AI did occasionally return him to the spotlight. In 1992 he was briefly taken in for questioning by police following allegations of violating the Caracas Accords but he was subsequently released without charge. A year later, he was questioned under caution again, this time in relation to his investments in InGen Corporation following the Isla Nublar disaster. Once again, no charges were brought.
In 1997 it was announced that Turing had been diagnosed with senile dementure. He died of complications related to the disease in 2004.
Although a controversial figure towards the end of his life, since his death Turing’s reputation has recovered due to his vast contributions to computer science and artificial intelligence. In October 2009, the Bank of England announced that Turing would be depicted on the Commonwealth’s new £50 note.