Israel has launched a NIS 1 million, government backed fund to aid the creation of regulatory sandboxes for artificial intelligence (AI), the Innovation, Science, and Technology Ministry announced Monday. This initiative is groundbreaking on a national level, as it is one of the first formal steps towards regulating experimental policy within a controlled framework.
The initiative was introduced at the second meeting of the Inter-Ministerial AI Regulators Forum, hosted at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem. The program aims to support ministries and regulators to test AI technologies in a flexible, yet secure, environment. It will be supervised and coordinated by the Innovation; Science, and Technology Ministry; Innovation Authority; the Regulatory Authority; and the Finance and Justice ministries.
Government agencies now have the opportunity to submit plans for AI sandbox projects. The proposal vetting will help to prioritize projects of public relevance such as healthcare, education, and transportation.
“AI integration into government operations is not merely a technological upgrade—it is a strategic move to strengthen the public sector, improve citizen services, and increase the effectiveness of state operations. This new call for proposals builds on insights from the first phase and offers ministries the tools and resources to advance meaningful, data-driven projects,” said CEO of the National Digital Agency Shira Lev-Ami .
Chosen projects will be granted financial support, legal counsel, technical, and interministerial collaboration. Based on the forum discussion on Monday, consisting of over 150 officials, legal experts, and industry leaders, the sandbox aims to assist in practices of ethical benefit, i.e. improving public data, and will also allow for collaborations between the government and local industries.
“Artificial intelligence is not just technology – it is a lever for improving quality of life, optimizing government services, and strengthening Israel's leadership in the international arena,” said Innovation, Science, and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel.
Unlike the usual red tape preventing access, the AI regulatory sandbox will allow for organizations to avoid many of the inconvenient fines and liabilities that come with testing the waters of any new or updated technological advancement.
How does it work?
A regulatory sandbox allows for groundbreaking new technologies, such as AI powered diagnostics to be experimented with, under light regulations. Essentially, it’s a framework where testing the limits of something like user data and footprints for fraud protection – which have been used by the UK and Norway’s AI/machine learning – may be done without compromising public privacy terms, and legal boundaries; as mentioned in The Sumsuber. This is done in order to maintain moral standing, while determining the highest potential form of that system.
“The National Digital Agency will continue to lead and support government offices in implementing innovative solutions for the benefit of all Israelis,” Lev-Ami said.