Artificial intelligence tools are reshaping the professional landscape at an unprecedented pace, experts said during the first-ever American Innovation Forum in Jerusalem, which brought together dozens of young professionals under the topic, Level Up: Career Growth in the Age of AI.
“Its important to know that with AI, you can build applications faster, have new ideas faster, but that you still need to be the human behind it, have the human remain behind the wheel... don’t give AI the control to do everything,” Mohammad Kabajah, a senior software and AI infrastructure architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS), noted.
Kabajah was one of the three speakers at the summit hosted by the Jerusalem Young Professionals (JYP) Forum, Made in JLM, and Start-up Grind at America Hub Israel (US Embassy Jerusalem), alongside Miriam Haart, the CEO of ActionAI, and Gideon Rosenberg, the vice president and head of HR at NVIDIA Israel.
JYP Forum’s mission is to build a strong, inclusive community of young professionals, connecting talent from across east and west Jerusalem. One common theme at the event was the significant potential of Jerusalem, thanks to the people who live there.
Jerusalem, Israel, and the hi-tech opportunities
The speakers at the event were not all born in Jerusalem, but all three understood the city’s significance and the potential for hi-tech careers in Israel’s capital.
Haart, who lives in Tel Aviv, told the crowd that, while she has employees from several different countries, she loved hiring people from this country “because I find a nice combination between family, hard work, and of course, chutzpah.”
“The US and the UAE, where we also have offices, offer great places to gain capital and investments, while in Israel, thanks to the amazing pool of talent, we have a good way of getting this capital through new developments,” she said.
Rosenberg and NVIDIA also share this thought. While there are no NVIDIA offices in the capital, there are branches in Tel Aviv and northern Israel, and nothing stops Jerusalem residents from joining the multinational tech giant.
“Jerusalem isn’t different from Tel Aviv or any other part of the country; you shouldn’t think to yourself, as a Jerusalemite, ‘What can I do if I live in Jerusalem?’ It just means that you might have to travel once or twice a week to our offices in Tel Aviv,” Rosenberg said.
“Our latest product, the NVIDIA Rubin platform, has four out of its six chips designed by the Israeli branch of the company. Israel is a considerable investment for NVIDIA, to the point that its leadership sees it as its second home outside of the US.”
Kabajah, who was born and raised in the Old City of Jerusalem, told the crowd that being a Jerusalemite provided a special advantage.
“I finished school in Jerusalem, I didn’t speak Hebrew, and didn’t even have a driver’s license. But I learned that hard work is the only way to move forward. And I think that is a key aspect of the people from Jerusalem. The city doesn’t give the easy path, but it builds strong people,” he said.
Marc Faust, the founder and chairman of the JYP Forum, said, “As American companies seek exceptional talent across Israel, Jerusalem is emerging as a rising hi-tech hub. The American Innovation Forum connects the city’s young professionals directly with global industry and strengthens strategic opportunities on the ground.”
“Thirty-four thousand American jobs are supported by the Israeli economy,” Johann Schmonsees, the counselor for economic affairs at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, said.
“Trade is an important part of the Israeli-US relation,” he added.
Future professionals and AI
“I think that an important component in the hi-tech industry is to fail, and with AI, we can fail faster, move on, and find the actual thing that will eventually work out,” Kabajah told the audience.
Haart agreed with this idea, noting that “nothing is future-proof” when asked which careers young professionals should pursue. “One way to minimize risk in your career is to be okay with the uncomfortable. Go and try, working on the short-term steps to eventually reach your objective.”
“AI has the potential to impact every industry; that’s why it is a fundamental technology, even in fields with a lot of manual work,” Haart added.
Rosenberg’s career mirrors this concept. He is a lawyer with no tech background, but he has succeeded in the hi-tech industry by working at tech-focused companies.
“Outside of software, coding, and development, hi-tech companies are normal businesses that need lawyers, accountants, finances, and sales. I entered hi-tech doing that, knowing what I’m good with, and doing it for a hi-tech company,” he said.
“For young professionals, the eruption of AI doesn’t mean that if you don’t know how this tool works, you’ll lose your job. AI works as a 24/7 agent that processes data, but it still needs humans to understand what that data means. That is what humans are for, to figure out what to do with the data AI provides,” Rosenberg continued.
AI safety and ethics in hi-tech
The other main topic of the forum was AI safety and ethical development, which, according to the speakers, was an important issue of interest to all major actors currently developing AI.
“For the moment, AI is like a toddler; it just gives you the answer you want to hear without providing input or its own imagination into the thought process,” Rosenberg said. “But it’s good that the risks of AI development are being taken care of now, with time to address the problems that it might lead to.”
Haart agreed that this has long been a main concern in AI, with ethics courses taught at the world’s leading universities for the past decade: “We can see AI as a gun. Guns have safety mechanisms that aim to avoid unnecessary risks, but in the end, it depends on the people building them and using them to guarantee that they are safe.”
“I personally believe in the forces of good, in people doing the correct thing, and that these are the people that are going to win when developing ethical AI models,” she noted.
“It’s important to understand that the world won’t be ‘ended by robots.’ AI is not going to take over us,” Rosenberg said. Every actor involved in the development of AI is interested in regulating it, creating a framework to work with, and making it safe for use, he determined.