The National Digital
Service
After the war there was
a profound
societal change, and the National Health Service was born. A
similarly profound
change is happening now, and the country needs to create a
National Digital
Service (sic) NDiS which should be constructed over the next 10
years.
Aspects of the
National Digital Service
include:
1. Digital government
services (already
happening) but can be much improved using data and AI.
2. Digital services
mandated to be
provided by private suppliers (a form of taxation)
3. Digital Commons - mostly
industry and
innovation-related building blocks - lowRISC CIC is an existing
example
4. NHS services (already
happening a bit)
- for example how future patient self-monitoring should be
formally
incorporated in healthcare
5. Provisioning,
governance, and
implementation pathway for potentially controversial emerging
and future
technologies - neural interfaces, AI, planetary observation for
net zero, etc
Policy points include:
1. Some
forms of digital
technologies should be considered a utility like water
2. Who pays - saying there
is no money is
not an option - public private partnerships are one way
3. Can/should we rely on
Big Tech to
provide services like search, ChatGPT, and others - in
particular those that
will be indispensable to society
4. Is there a class of
fundamental
applications which are as important to individuals as (digital)
cash yet cannot
be obtained using money
5. What are the control
levers for AI and
how do we require visibility of them from Big Tech and other
suppliers
(previous example was legislation on car emissions) - current
hot topic
6. Role of universities and
how they are
incentivised - most of the big AI platforms are coming from
industry
7. Should there be a
universal National
Digital Service obligation and what might it look like (as a
parallel with the
universal postal service obligation) - how far should it reach
8. Privacy
and security - how to
nudge individuals to feel comfortable - what is the trust model
- how to make
the NDiS a UK treasure like the NHS
Advantages include:
1. Directly
dealing with the
haves and have nots - by default NDiS is available to any UK
entity individual
providing they have a broadband connection
2. Some technology
sovereignty and control
3. A better system at the
engineering
level because the framework was thought about ahead of time
4. A vision and plan for
the UK beyond the
political cycle - particularly post Brexit
5. Wealth, health and
happiness - well
maybe - people will find it very hard to be without such digital
services
Andy Hopper
9 August 2023