The world is selling the future... and we are paying the price for wars!

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As we follow news of threatening corridors and endless conflicts, another rapidly expanding trade is moving through the world: the microchips, servers, and equipment that underpin artificial intelligence applications. The comparison is worth considering, because the future of economies is being shaped while we are preoccupied with the crises of the past. Those who invest in knowledge do not wait for us to end our disputes. For every postponement we have an opportunity that others seize, and for every young man we frustrate, there is a distant institution that may know the value of what he can offer.

On October 8, Reuters reported from the World Trade Organization that trade in products related to artificial intelligence jumped by 67% on an annual basis. The demand for it has helped compensate for some of the trade disruptions resulting from wars. The figure relates to trade in these products, not to the growth of the entire global economy, but it reveals the direction in which money, skills, and new opportunities are accumulating.

I see that the news carries a political question that goes beyond technology... How does part of the world succeed in expanding its activity, while our region is preoccupied with accounts of the past?... There are countries that choose their priorities well, and give the researcher, teacher, and project owner an opportunity to work... There are forces that make society constantly mobilize, and call for battles of history to justify the waste of the present... The difference later appears in job opportunities, the level of knowledge, and the state’s ability to protect the independence of its decision.

The title here does not reduce the Arabs to one case. In the Gulf there are serious attempts to build more diversified economies and investments in modern technologies, universities and services. In other Arab countries there are competencies that work despite difficult circumstances. Therefore, I am disturbed by the generalization that equates those who build with those who disrupt construction. I do not believe that purchasing advanced equipment is enough to usher in the future. The state can spend generously on a building and equipment, and then discover that it did not repair the school that prepares workers, did not grant the university freedom of research, and did not prepare the administration to deal with the idea. New...imported technology becomes more useful when you find local knowledge capable of using it and developing it, and here is the importance of human capital.

To take a recent example, a good tool can help a small company manage its inventory, or shorten a procedure that consumes a reviewer’s time, or help a teacher prepare appropriate material for his students. These are uses whose usefulness can be measured, and from here begins a serious policy: a specific problem, an experiment that can be evaluated, and then expanding what works. We do not have to wait for an invention that competes with the whole world in order to benefit from knowledge. But we need management that accepts testing, admits error, and rewards the result more than the appearance of activity.

On the other hand, the enthusiasm for technology requires a critical mind. Companies may exaggerate their promises, and may waste public funds on poorly feasible projects. Development requires an understanding of what we buy, the ability to negotiate about it, and an evaluation of what it actually adds. I do not want us to replace the fascination with the political slogan with a similar fascination with the technical slogan. Both of them become costly. The greatest cost of the ongoing wars also appears in what did not happen: a factory that was not built, a researcher who did not return, and a startup company that chose to register outside the region. These are losses that we do not see, but they narrow the possibilities for the future.

Societies do not advance simply because they master returning to the starting point after each round of conflict. Hence, defending stability in our region becomes a developmental and moral stance.

People have the right to live outside the ongoing state of emergency, and to plan their children’s education and businesses. Arab cooperation can also gather financing, expertise, and markets, if it moves from data to implementable programs.

I would prefer a joint project that opens the door to hundreds of researchers, rather than a long speech about the glories of ancient knowledge. Respecting what our ancestors accomplished is achieved by adding useful knowledge, not by repeating their names whenever we are unable to present a contemporary achievement.

Our daily questions are required to change: What have our students learned? What obstacles have we removed in front of the product? How do we maintain the efficiency we have prepared? These are questions that deserve an advanced place in the public debate, instead of reminiscing about the problems of the past!