A recent report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, titled “Artificial Intelligence and the Great Divergence,” poses a strategic question I believe every national leader should be asking: on which side of this AI-driven divergence will our country find itself? The report, published on January 21, suggests AI could reshape the global economic hierarchy much faster than previous technological revolutions like electricity or the internet.
Several insights stood out to me. The report argues that broad adoption may matter more than pure invention, and that governments have a crucial role to play in accelerating this process. Key takeaways include:
- Speed: AI may reshape economic leadership faster than past technologies.
- Adoption over Invention: The greatest gains may go to nations that deploy AI widely across public services, healthcare, education, and industry.
- Government's Role: Public sector adoption can create demand and infrastructure, accelerating national progress.
- Infrastructure as a Strategic Asset: Compute, energy, data, and talent are now core to national competitiveness.
For Israel, the report contains encouraging signals. It notes that our R&D investment, at about 6% of GDP, is the highest in the world. Israel is also recognized as one of the few countries contributing to frontier AI models and having a very high per-capita usage of advanced AI systems, placing us among the global leaders in early adoption.
These are strong foundational elements. However, the true challenge lies ahead. We must translate this technological strength into deep, economy-wide integration. It's imperative that we study these dynamics carefully to ensure we position ourselves firmly on the leading side of the AI transition.