COPYRIGHT © DIGITAL JOURNAL INC. Sitemaps: XML / News. Digital Journal is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more about our external linking
During his career with the British government, politico-turned-entrepreneur Daniel Korski used high-level technologies to develop multiple government initiatives. Today, he uses his tech expertise to fuel the success of the businesses he invests in.
Korski explains that technology is delivering an increasing number of solutions for entrepreneurs. From cloud technologies to machine-powered data monitoring, automation tools, and customer relationship management software, these solutions can all hugely benefit businesses.
“I’ve always been drawn to the power of what technology can deliver,” Korski says. However, he also notes that we need to take a balanced view of the impact technology can have on society. Here, he explores:
Korski explains that although technology does pose challenges, the right policies and infrastructure can help it work for rather than against us.
When working in the British government, Korski oversaw several political initiatives that leveraged technology. These initiatives included TechCity, the Government Digital Service (GDS), Innovate Finance, the D5, and Pitch 10.
Now, Korski says that all government departments rely on technology. Tech deeply influences all policy areas, from social media and cyberattacks to the arrival of robots and the decimation of jobs.
Korski believes technology will make the future of politics “increasingly complex.” The rise of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) may complicate the factors that “good policy is based on.” Korski considers these factors “truth, evidence, and reasoned debate.”
According to Korski, the political leaders who served during his tenure with the British government were “instinctively open-minded about technology and what it could do.”
However, the government and wider society have now uncovered the more difficult aspects of technology. Moving forward, the challenge is to reap the benefits of technology while minimising its disadvantages.
“We were living in an expansive golden era of digital development and didn’t quite understand the dark aspects that have now come to play themselves out,” Korski says.
Some governments have been reluctant to embrace emerging technologies. However, Covid-19 acted as a catalyst in many governments’ adoption of these technologies. This was especially the case in the education sector: Schools across the country implemented digital tools to educate students under lockdown.
Although various technologies proved beneficial, many people objected to our increased reliance on technology, concerned about digital encroachments on their privacy. “It’s a complex interplay,” Korski says. “But, on the whole, technology has been an accelerant.”
Korski highlights the former co-founder of PayPal Peter Thiel’s point that, in the 1950s, “‘innovation’ meant rockets and hadron colliders, and chemical innovations.” Now, innovation mostly refers to digital products. Korski questions whether we’re neglecting non-digital innovation by focusing most of our efforts on digital solutions.
Korski explains that technology is now advanced enough to solve most physical challenges. Therefore, the biggest challenge doesn’t lie in what technology can achieve, whether that’s increasing cloud storage or improving an app interface.
Instead, the biggest challenge lies in how we can integrate technology into our “complex personal, social, political, religious settings, where human behaviour needs to shift to get the benefits from the technology.”
It’s in these settings that “people stand to lose or gain, whether it’s their jobs or their prestige.” At the very least, people will “have to change how they work,” Korski says, “which is very difficult.”
On a brighter note, the development of AI may be “enormously positive,” creating new jobs and detecting diseases faster than ever before.
Given this rise of AI, the government will need to develop a regulatory framework to reduce the challenges that come with AI technologies. While this will be difficult, the government has met challenging needs before, even inventing nuclear weapons and hydrogen bombs.
“In the end, we’ve proven pretty resilient,” Korski says. Upholding this resilience has the potential to open doors to a connected future, one where the benefits of technology far outweigh the drawbacks.
During his early career, Korski served the then-UN high representative Lord Paddy Ashdown in Bosnia. In this position, he built the first intelligence agency after the war in the country and helped merge the three warring army factions. He also conceptualised the idea of an indirect taxation authority, which he built with the World Bank.
Four years later, he moved to the UK to become the advisor to the Defence Select Committee in Parliament. During his time in the UK, he briefed David Cameron on the Afghanistan mission. When the Conservative Party came to power, he worked in the department for a few months as an advisor to the international-level secretary.
An opportunity then arose for Korski to transition to the Department for International Development. In this role, he volunteered to work in Afghanistan, advising President Hamid Karzai’s government. He worked in the British Embassy and later in the then-Ministry of Counter-Narcotics. In this role, he advised the minister and drafted the country’s counter-narcotic strategy.
Korski then took on a variety of positions and projects in a short space of time. He volunteered to work in Yemen. He spent a year working for the State Department in the UK. He also launched several projects of his own before leading the reconstruction of the southern part of Iraq.
After this assignment, Korski was part of the team that built European Council of Foreign Relations. He was also a one of the first writers at, “Coffee House,” The Spectator’s blog.
He then spent time in Egypt, building the Middle East Programme for the European Council on Foreign Relations to support young democratic forces. He also raised funds for this programme.
However, while he was in Egypt, conflict emerged in Libya. Korski travelled across the border and reported on the crisis for The Spectator. Following this, he moved to Brussels to work for the High Representative for Foreign Affairs in the E.U.
Two years later, Korski accepted a position at the Prime Minister’s Office in the UK. Three and a half years after this, he built the GovTech Summit. This summit became one of the biggest platforms for leaders to discuss the digitisation of public services.
Korski then acted as Tom Tugendhat’s campaign leader when he ran in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.
When the Russo-Ukrainian War escalated in 2022, Korski organised fundraisers and travelled to Ukraine to help early on. He organised the delivery of drones, bulletproof vests, helmets, and other supplies. He also raised multiple fundraisers to collect donations.
Learn more about Daniel Korski.