“Israel is usually ranked in the first or second-fifth of the world’s countries in artificial intelligence (AI), in indicators such as investments, scientific publications, or the number of companies active in the field. There is a crazy Artificial intelligence revolution around us, and everyone wants to secure a large share of it for themselves. There are huge investments around the world, either in finance, in the focus of attention and in other ways. If Israel does not participate in the race, it will slide downwards” – says Dr. Ziv Katzir, who is in charge of the Israeli national program for Artificial intelligence and Deputy Director of the Innovation Authority.
About 2,300 companies operate in the field of AI in Israel – a particularly high number in relation to the size of the population. The national program says Dr. Katzir, “is intended to keep Israel at the top of international rankings on the front of Artificial intelligence in the world”. There are quite a few private investments in Israeli high-tech, but sometimes Government intervention is required and that is where we enter the picture. The program ensures that all arms work together in a coordinated manner.”
Dr. Ziv Katzir, who is responsible for the national program for AI
In what areas does the artificial intelligence industry in Israel need strengthening?
“On the one hand, there is excellent human capital in Israel. Our capabilities in R&D and commercialization are very high in global comparison, and this is one of the reasons why we are known as the startup nation, with the ability to take an idea from academia and turn it into a company. This is also true in Artificial Intelligence.
“The most relevant secret Israeli component in Artificial intelligence is the integration of arms, cross-sector work. This is very necessary. Let’s say you want to build an AI system in the field of education or health – we will need 4-5 people: one who is an expert in the world of content, one who can be a CEO, an AI expert, an economist who will build a business plan for a startup, and a developer who will write the software. Until these people meet, nothing will happen. And our ability in Israel to bring people together in a way that crosses sectors and disciplines is phenomenal.
“We are good at starting to run forward – but not so good at establishing strategies, long-term planning, and establishing expensive infrastructure that require time while we can only reap the fruits in a few years. We also do not excel at building a management environment. Out of these relative strengths – human capital, commercialization capabilities, sharing action, and from the relative weaknesses in long-term planning and management, we are working to close the gaps and leverage the advantages.”
The task – to produce more experts
The program headed by Katzir, he says, has three arms – strategy, infrastructure, and operational environment. “In the strategic aspect, we first need an orderly, long-term and budgeted plan, with operating and control mechanisms, accompanied by a regulatory plan. Only recently, we received final approval for an additional half a billion shekels for the plan.
“In terms of infrastructure – we take care of everything you can think of in the world of infrastructure. Whether it’s a physical computing infrastructure – so that any researcher or startup can get access to this infrastructure, quickly and cheaply, and be able to train the models. Whether it is about data – leveraging the databases, the unique ones that exist in Israel. whether it is a research infrastructure – which includes collecting all the data in one place and turning it into a real database, and not just an idea.
“In addition, as you get into more interesting data, usually legal problems – issues of privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, and discrimination – also arise. To solve this, we create an infrastructure in which R&D can be carried out on the data in a way that does not endanger privacy and does not raise these problems “.
And what about the operational environment?
“Israel is ranked at the top in Artificial intelligence in the world because it has many smart people in relation to its size. But here, too, we are faced with a significant problem that is felt all over the world – experts. In Israeli culture, we are used to software companies, and here there is no shortage of manpower – graduates of technology units in the IDF, many Bachelor’s Degree graduates in computer science and software engineering, or talented people who took a course of several months and became junior developers.
“But in Artificial intelligence, it doesn’t work like that. The minimum is someone who has completed a doctorate, or at least a Master’s, and has three years of experience in the field. Until someone completes a Master’s or third degree and acquires three years of experience, they do not have the appropriate level of expertise to lead research in industry and academia and to create deep intellectual property. It is impossible to shorten the time needed for expert training. Perhaps a particularly agile woman will get a doctorate in eight years instead of ten, but practical experience is also needed.”
So what do we do?
“First, training courses are created for graduates of research degrees in other fields of science, because the distance between a Bachelor’s Degree in chemistry or biology and an expert in Artificial intelligence is much smaller than that of a Bachelor’s Degree in software engineering. Artificial intelligence is a much more research-oriented discipline, and more similar to scientific research than software development. With training programs that will fill in the gaps, a biologist will be able to become an Artificial intelligence researcher in biology and related fields. In addition, the number of people who enter the funnel is increased – and more people are encouraged to enter the training track. First, in scholarship programs for all research degrees, based on excellence and the like; and secondly, the IDF enters the picture, with a program that is being built these days when the first students will probably start studying in October 2025. This is about a hundred recruits per year, who have already completed a Bachelor’s Degree in high school. After the selection, they will take a basic course in Artificial intelligence to serve as an expert’s apprentice, and at the same time, they will begin Master’s studies, upon completion of which they will be placed in Artificial intelligence positions within the service. The hope is that within four to five years we will receive an influx of talented and experienced people, in the IDF or in civilian life.
“There is also a third solution – to become importers of experts. Today, unfortunately, we mainly export experts, and there is a classic brokerage problem here – a CEO of a startup looking for an expert will not know how to look for him abroad; On the other hand, an Artificial intelligence expert living in Hungary, Romania or India, will not know how to reach an Israeli company. We want to create mediation between the parties, with one foot in Israel and one abroad.”
On the way to an increase in employment – and new jobs
Another important issue, says Dr. Katzir, is natural language infrastructure in Hebrew and Arabic, which require an initial investment estimated at several tens of millions of dollars, development of methods, training of models and more. “There are only 15 million Hebrew speakers worldwide, so it is not commercially viable. But if we want to benefit from the unique databases in Hebrew, for example in health, or to allow high-tech companies to sell products in Israel, or to improve the service to the citizen – we need to improve the service in Hebrew as well as in Arabic, which is much more common, but only a few high-tech companies operate in the Arabic eco-system”.
Finally, the question you can’t do without – is Artificial intelligence good for humanity, or not?
“The fear of artificial intelligence is usually divided into two – some fear that one day the machines will be smarter than us and destroy humanity, so we must closely monitor the developments in Artificial Intelligence. This is a scenario that will not materialize in the foreseeable time frame. What can happen, in the opinion of many, is that the machines can do everything will cause high unemployment. In this matter, opinions are divided.
“None of the previous technological revolutions caused global unemployment. They led to an increase in employment and higher productivity. Jobs are always created that were impossible to imagine before. If we check the job map in high-tech today, I estimate that 70%-80% of the workers have titles that did not exist a decade ago,” concludes Dr. Katzir.
