{"id":3270,"date":"2023-02-08T05:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/?post_type=report&p=3270"},"modified":"2023-08-15T15:06:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T15:06:52","slug":"the-race-for-technological-leadership","status":"publish","type":"report","link":"https:\/\/innovationisrael.org.il\/en\/report\/the-race-for-technological-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Race for Technological Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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AI (Artificial Intelligence) is slated to be at the heart of the 21st century\u2019s technological developments. After several decades referred to as the AI winter, the present decade began with a long-awaited breakthrough in the field. The combination of powerful processors and a multitude of users with access to massive amounts of data, have created a critical mass that has launched us into the commencement of a new wave of technology. This new surge in the digital revolution is based on earlier waves: computability, connectivity, and mobility. Consequently, AI is also expected to become a GPT (General Purpose Technology) that will serve as the foundation for many future advanced tech applications that will revolutionize every aspect of our lives: Autonomous vehicles, personalized medicine, precision agriculture, mobile robots, computers that speak and understand natural language, and many other developments we cannot yet envision, will all be based on AI capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accordingly, AI-based innovation is expected to be key for economic growth in companies, in sectors, and in countries that will be at the forefront of this technology. It is not surprising, therefore, that many countries have already announced their national AI strategy and are developing research infrastructure, human capital, and a supportive regulatory framework. Will Israel, which was among the world leaders in previous waves of technology, successfully find its way to lead with this technology as well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The digital revolution, which has gradually enabled the representation of nearly everything in the world as universally accessible digital data, is the most important revolution of the late 20th century, and most likely of the 21st century as well. But this transformation is not one- dimensional; it is built on the foundation of waves of a variety of core enabling technologies. An astute analysis of these waves allows us to understand when a wave of technology is dwindling down \u2013 meaning its rate of innovation is decreasing \u2013 and when another wave is emerging and its rate of innovation is skyrocketing. Economic growth in relevant sectors is closely tied to technological waves; it carries, therefore, considerable weight in innovation policies. In this chapter, we will propose a classification of the digital revolution into three waves: the wave of computability based on the computer, the connectivity wave based on the internet, and the mobility wave based on the smartphone. Of course, as in all models, here too, the attempt to simplify reality by dividing it into distinct parts can be controversial; yet we believe that this classification helps explain the significance of the present era as a crossroads in Israel\u2019s innovation policy.<\/p>\n\n\n