In recent weeks, the Israeli government has been moving forward with the establishment of a national directorate that would coordinate all government AI activities, from within the Prime Minister’s Office. This directorate will be largely at the expense of the directorate created in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and the Israel Innovation Authority, for which NIS 1 billion has already been allocated.
Venture capital investor Dovi Francis, owner of Group 11, will be appointed as an advisor to the new Artificial Intelligence Directorate, which is being established, until a general director is appointed, sources familiar with the matter told Globes. The appointment has not yet been finalized, but if it goes ahead, Frances will support preparatory work for three months before enacting the National Directorate of Artificial Intelligence bill, which will be discussed in the Knesset in the first quarter of 2025. Frances will be responsible for shaping the work plan and proposing Budget, creation of an external advisory committee, and inclusion of potential candidates for the position of Director General.
Francis, who is considered close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Accountant General Yali Rotenberg, has in recent years been involved in promoting the Israel Innovation Authority’s Yuzma 2 fund, which encourages institutional investors to invest in Israeli venture capital funds – a provision that has been included in the state budget. .
The AI initiative is being implemented out of the Israel Innovation Authority, and Globes has learned that NIS 150 million has already been allocated to the Accountant General initiative. There is currently no final budget estimate, and it will only be determined at the end of the preparatory work in early 2025.
Senior figures familiar with the plan that Francis presented to Netanyahu say that the two men expect many prominent figures from the international business community to participate to help realize the plan. Some of these figures are close to President Donald Trump including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, who founded PayPal with Musk, and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who after leaving the ChatGPT developer founded SST, a new AI company that will be based in San Francisco and Tel Aviv. . Aviv.
The election of Trump as President of the United States opens Francis and Netanyahu’s associates with the opportunity to renew the strategic alliance with senior Emirati and Saudi officials. During the Biden administration, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia invested tens of billions of dollars in purchasing graphics processors and servers to develop artificial intelligence, granted tax benefits to entrepreneurs and investors in this field, and sent hundreds of experts from Europe and the United States to work in the field of artificial intelligence. Gulf – At the same time, they distanced themselves from Israel and tightened relations with China. Israel’s new National Directorate for Artificial Intelligence hopes to work with UAE National Security Advisor Tahnoun bin Zayed, who runs the G42 UAE-US Artificial Intelligence Fund, and with other senior officials in the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
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Another name reported to be likely to cooperate with Amnesty International Israel’s National Directorate is Argentine President Javier Miley, who recently met with Francis and Thiel over the issue. The National Directorate is also in talks with Microsoft and Nvidia about helping as advisors and perhaps even participating in the activities, although they are not part of the government’s cloud tender like Google and Amazon.
Musk, who visited Israel about a year ago and was photographed wearing a disc to release Hamas hostages a few weeks later, is expected to get a position in the White House as an adviser to Trump, with responsibilities for streamlining and streamlining matters. Reducing the government structure, and introducing artificial intelligence technologies. Musk’s activities in cryptocurrency, space, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles may also benefit from a relationship with the new Trump administration.
Palantir Chairman Peter Thiel visits Israel frequently with CEO Alex Karp, and last year moved a Palantir board meeting to Israel as a sign of solidarity with Israel after the October 7 Hamas massacre. He was then photographed meeting with Ministry of Defense DDR&D (MAFAT) CEO Danny Gold and other senior officials in the Israeli defense establishment.
Four-part plan
Senior officials who have seen the plan that Francis presented to Netanyahu say that it includes four sections: health, education, financial services, and security. Each of these areas will be examined according to the AI infrastructure, budget, programs and government interfaces required, and will be developed internally – in terms of government ministries, public bodies and citizens who will participate – and externally to create a partnership. With companies like Nvidia and Microsoft and countries like the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Thus, for example, in the field of health, the National Directorate hopes to cooperate with all health authorities in Israel to identify needs: hospitals, health funds, the Ministry of Health, universities and research institutes, start-ups, Israeli and foreign venture capital funds. And foreign ministries of health. One application in the healthcare system might be, for example, reducing medical malpractice expenses from the entire healthcare system, which are estimated at NIS 1 billion annually.
While the government stresses the need to create an independent, high-priority directorate, the Directorate of Artificial Intelligence, in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and in the technology industry, many criticize the fact that the government is creating another directorate and adopting a national development strategic plan. Amnesty International, after this had been done several times in the past by Yitzhak Ben-Israel in the ministry and former Science Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen and her successor Ofir Akunis. Today, the Innovation Authority’s Artificial Intelligence Directorate operates according to the Farkash HaCohen plan.
Another criticism is the government’s plan to create another directorate, while the government has already approved a NIS 1 billion budget in two installments for the current directorate, including the one approved in last week’s 2025 budget that will distribute a NIS worth of investment. 500 million over three years. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office believe that even after allocating the budget, the new law will make it possible to transfer this budget to the new directorate.
There was no response to this report from the Prime Minister’s Office or Dovi Francis.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on November 10, 2024.
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