Significant news for Israeli hi-tech – Israel officially joined the GPAI Forum this week affirming its position as one of the world’s most powerful countries in the field of artificial intelligence. Currently, 18 countries are members of the forum and Israel’s acceptance into the prestigious body strengthens the Jewish state’s position as an international leader in hi-tech.

The forum’s decision to include Israel followed a meeting of Minister of Innovation Science and Technology Orit Prakash HaCohen and Director of the Technology and Innovation Department Moran Dayan with the OECD Secretary General and The Minister of Science of France. At the meeting, the minister presented the significant progress that Israel has made in the past year in the field of artificial intelligence.

The Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) was established at the initiative of Canada and France with the aim of creating collaborations between experts from academia, industry, governments and leading organizations around the world. To date, members include 18 countries from the European Union as well as the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. Israel was selected from 10 countries that applied.

Israel’s accession to the GPAI will enable the Jewish state to cooperate with the most powerful countries in the field of artificial intelligence, to take part in international research in the field of AI, to influence the design of international policy and to get to know other countries’ processes in the field. All of this will help the government to optimize its policies for the growth of the industry and for increased innovations and improvements in the hi-tech industry and of the economy in general.