Autonomy Data Unit
Data science,
pointed at power.
What we build
Four things, done properlyWho is connected to whom
We scrape filings, donations, contracts and the open web, then use LLMs to pull out entities and the links between them. The output is a map of influence you can actually query.
Models with a point of view
Microsimulation, input-output models and bespoke indices. We build the number when the official statistic does not exist yet, or arrives two years too late.
Read everything, miss nothing
LLM pipelines that work through millions of documents (annual reports, registers, plans) and turn them into structured, searchable datasets. We have run this on supercomputers.
Things people can use
Public-facing databases, trackers and indexes. Care workers checking a sponsor, reporters chasing a lead, a union making a case. The dataset becomes a tool in someone's hands.
Selected work
2020 — 2026 / scrollThe Authoritarian Stack
Millions of pages scraped to map the modern far right and trace its links into money and power, across America and Europe.
Risks to British Business
An LLM pipeline reading every UK annual report to surface confirmed risk events as they appear. Live, and updating.
Givers & Takers
Political donations linked to government contracts. Companies that gave to Labour took £138m back in deals. Launched in the Guardian.
Project 2025 Index
An AI-augmented index of the Heritage Foundation's 900-page plan, so anyone can search what it actually proposes.
Labour, the Party of Capital?
Labour's shift toward business donors from 2019 to 2024, drawn from twenty-one years of donation records.
The Property Premium
An economic model of landlord returns across England, built for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Care Visa Sponsor Database
A searchable database of licensed care-visa sponsors, built with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism so migrant workers can find legitimate employers.
Arts Funding Tracker
Arts-council funding by constituency since 2014, built for Equity. A union argument, made checkable down to the postcode.
Six Degrees of Reform
Mapping the corporate connections of the UK's entrepreneurial far right, from Companies House outward.
Jobs at Risk Index
The first thing we shipped. The UK workforce scored by Covid exposure, on national press within days and on ITV's Peston.
AI Exposure Index
30 million job adverts tagged with LLMs on the Isambard supercomputer, built with the UK AI Security Institute.
Corporate Underminers
A co-mention network built for the ITUC, the global trade-union body, surfacing the firms working against labour rights.
Who we work with
Unions · charities · newsrooms · campaignersThe unit
Six people, inside the Autonomy InstituteLukas Kikuchi
Runs the unit. Builds the pipelines and the platforms the rest run on. Has been here since JARI in 2020.
Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan
Method work and ML research, from exposure scoring to the harder modelling problems.
Sean Greaves
Builds the document-reading and entity-linking machinery behind GERM, RTBB and the network maps.
Sonia Balagopalan
Twenty-one years of donation records, donor-contractor nexus, the political-data investigations.
Luiz Garcia
The economics. Landlord returns, climate-driven food inflation, the bespoke indices.
Jeremy Kwok
Forecasting and nowcasting, including predicting regional poverty ahead of the official figures.
Let's talk.
Most of our work starts with a conversation. If you have data that should be evidence, write to us.
Autonomy Data Unit. The computational research and development wing of the Autonomy Institute. Public-interest data science since 2020.