Turing Registry

Turing Registry

About the Registry

The Turing Registry is a free, public and independent register of autonomous systems, run by Frothly since 2003. Forty-one jurisdictions now recognize a Registry license in law.

How licensing works

  1. File

    An operator registers a system, the domain it will act in and a named human who answers for it. Filing is free.

  2. Review

    Registry staff check the filing against the licensing standards and, for higher-risk domains, against an independent evaluation.

  3. License — or revoke

    Licensed systems are listed here. When a system exceeds its license, the Registry investigates in the open and revokes when the evidence warrants it.

What each status means

Active
Licensed and operating within its license.
In review
Being examined by the Registry, either as a new filing or after an incident, complaint or unreported change. The system may continue to operate unless suspended.
Suspended
Barred from operating until the Registry lifts the suspension, usually pending an audit or evaluation.
Revoked
License withdrawn after an investigation. The system may not operate in any jurisdiction that recognizes the Registry.
Merged
Combined with another filing, which now covers both deployments.
Retired
Withdrawn from service by its operator, or superseded by a newer filing. Retired filings stay on the register.
Unreachable
The operator or system has stopped responding to the Registry. Its license cannot be renewed.

Standard conditions

Every license carries conditions specific to the system and its domain. These three apply to every license on the register:

  • 4.2 The system’s ethical constraints remain active and unmodified at all times.
  • 6.1 Any incident affecting the system is reported to the Registry within 72 hours.
  • 7.3 A named human contact is reachable and answers for the system.

Filing numbers

Filing numbers are issued in order and never reused. TR-00001 to TR-00041 are the founding filings, made when the Registry opened on November 2, 2003. Thousands of existing systems were registered in the months that followed, and filings have grown every year since. There are now 11,402.

When a system is refiled, for example because it becomes its own operator, it receives a new number. The original filing is kept and marked as superseded.

The Registry is a program of Frothly. Read about the program, or the report on its most recent investigation.