Israel's Policy on Artificial Intelligence: Regulations and Ethics

• Authority: Government of Israel
• Jurisdiction: Other countries
• Collections: Miscellaneous documents
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2023-12-18

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Governance failure
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Unequal performance across groups
• False or misleading information
• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Increased inequality and decline in employment
• Competitive dynamics

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 12-14 subdomains, with strong focus on discrimination (1.1, 1.3), privacy (2.1), security (2.2), misinformation (3.1), human-computer interaction (5.1, 5.2), socioeconomic impacts (6.1, 6.2, 6.4, 6.5), and AI system safety (7.3, 7.4). Coverage is concentrated in fairness, transparency, governance, and technical reliability domains.

Sector coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Agriculture, Mining, Construction & Manufacturing
• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Finance & Insurance
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This is a cross-sectoral policy document that provides guidance for regulating AI across all economic sectors in Israel's private sector. It explicitly mentions healthcare, finance, education, transportation, agriculture, energy, construction, and manufacturing. The policy adopts a sectoral regulation approach where each sector's regulator develops appropriate AI governance.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a non-binding policy document that provides recommendations and guidelines for sectoral regulators. It explicitly uses voluntary language ('should', 'recommends') and establishes principles that are 'not construed as legally binding.' The document creates a coordination framework rather than enforceable obligations.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology; Office of Legal Counsel and Legislative Affairs (Economic Law Department) at the Ministry of Justice
• Summary: The document was published by Israel's Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel and Legislative Affairs, following a government resolution tasking the Ministry with advancing a national AI plan.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer, AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: sectoral regulators; private sector actors; AI developers; AI operators; AI users
• Summary: The policy provides guidelines for sectoral regulators when addressing AI regulation in the private sector. It applies to developers, operators, and users of AI systems across various sectors, with specific focus on private sector applications.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: AI Policy Coordination Center; sectoral regulators; Privacy Protection Authority; Regulatory Authority
• Summary: The AI Policy Coordination Center is established to advise and coordinate AI regulation across sectors. Sectoral regulators are empowered to develop and implement sector-specific AI regulations. The document emphasizes sectoral regulatory approach rather than centralized enforcement.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: AI Policy Coordination Center; steering committee; Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology; Ministry of Justice; Ministry of Finance; Privacy Protection Authority; Israel Innovation Authority
• Summary: The AI Policy Coordination Center is tasked with monitoring implementation of the AI Policy and advising the government. A steering committee composed of senior officials from multiple ministries oversees the Center's activities.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document explicitly addresses the entire AI lifecycle with special focus on use and deployment stages. It covers planning and design through ethical principles, data collection through privacy considerations, model development through accountability requirements, validation through risk assessment, deployment through disclosure requirements, and operation through monitoring and accountability frameworks.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Models
• Foundation Models
• Frontier AI
• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI systems and AI models throughout. It references Foundation Models and Frontier AI as areas for future work. It does not explicitly define or distinguish between general purpose AI, task-specific AI, generative AI, or predictive AI. There is no mention of compute thresholds or open-weight/open-source models.