Israel National AI Initiative: Promoting Development and Addressing Global Competition

Key Chapter Title List

1. Executive Summary
2. Review of the Global AI Landscape
3. World-Transforming Artificial Intelligence
4. The AI Investment Race
5. Artificial Intelligence in Israel
6. Global Regulatory Responses to AI Challenges
7. National AI Initiative Strategy
8. Goal One: AI Infrastructure
9. Goal Two: AI in High-Tech Sectors
10. Goal Three: AI in the Public Sector
11. Goal Four: Establishing Israel's Position in the Global AI Arena
12. Goal Five: National-Level AI Readiness

Document Introduction

In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has permeated all areas of life, leading a global technological revolution, a process further accelerated by the maturation of generative AI. This technological leap has brought profound economic, social, legal, and regulatory changes, intensified global competition, and posed new challenges to Israel's high-tech industry and society. Israel, a nation reliant on its technological leadership to ensure its defense and socio-economic development, must confront this revolution. To this end, Israel launched its National AI Initiative in 2021, aiming to secure and enhance its leadership position in the global AI field.

This report is the core strategic document outlining this initiative. The document begins with a comprehensive review of the global AI landscape in Part A, analyzing the revolutionary impact of AI (especially generative AI) worldwide, the intense AI investment race, and conducting a multi-dimensional assessment of Israel's relative standing in the AI field. The report notes that Israel ranks among the global leaders in terms of AI talent concentration, private investment, R&D, and the number of startups. However, it also faces key challenges such as talent shortages (particularly highly educated researchers), limited computing infrastructure, difficulties in data access, lagging AI adoption in the public sector, insufficient processing capabilities for local languages (Hebrew and Arabic), and the need to establish a regulatory environment that encourages innovation.

Based on the above analysis, the report details the strategic plan of Israel's National AI Initiative in Part B. This initiative is a multi-year project (2021-2026) with a budget to date of approximately 1 billion NIS, guided by the vision of "achieving global AI leadership to support improved standards of living and ensure Israel's national resilience and economic growth." The plan is structured around five core goals: strengthening AI infrastructure and research; achieving a leap in AI application within the high-tech industry; implementing AI in the public sector; securing Israel's position in the global AI arena; and promoting national-level AI readiness. Specific action paths, responsible agencies, and key tasks are defined under each goal, such as establishing high-performance computing facilities, developing natural language processing infrastructure for Hebrew and Arabic, setting up regulatory sandboxes, promoting public sector pilot projects, and participating in international rule-making.

The report also systematically outlines the regulatory responses to AI in major global countries and regions (such as the EU, the US, and the UK) and explains Israel's regulatory approach based on the concept of "responsible innovation." This approach emphasizes a risk-based, sector-specific regulatory method, encourages experimentation (e.g., sandboxes), and strives for compatibility with global norms. Furthermore, the document includes a detailed appendix of performance indicators, providing a clear quantitative evaluation framework for assessing the initiative's implementation effectiveness.

This document provides policymakers, defense and security analysts, technology strategy researchers, and international relations scholars with a first-hand, authoritative policy blueprint on how a middle power at the forefront of geopolitical technological competition systematically plans its national-level AI strategy to safeguard technological sovereignty, economic competitiveness, and national security. It is not only a key text for understanding Israel's AI ambitions but also provides an important case study for observing the dynamics of global AI governance and technological competition.