Classroom discussion questions: 1. Why does Israel have more high-tech startups than any nation beside the U.S? 2. Why is AI such an important operations management tool?Article 1: OM in the News: More AI From the Start Up Nation MARCH 4, 2021 tags: high-tech, Israel, new product development, Start Up Nation by Barry Render This past week, The Wall Street Journal ran three separate articles on more high-tech research coming out of Israel. Those complement the blogs we have earlier done on Israeli firms producing 3-D printed hearts (April 23, 2019), warehouse robotics (Nov. 12, 2020), computer vision systems (Nov. 21, 2018), and 3-D printed steaks (Feb. 2, 2019). Here are the latest: First, about 7.5 million people in the U.S. have trouble using their voices. So Amazon other AI tech providers is working on tools to enable voice-activated digital assistants to understand users with a stutter and other speech impairments. Amazon's Alexa integration, with software developed by Israeli startup Voiceitt, lets people with speech impairments train an algorithm to recognize their own unique vocal patterns (WSJ, Feb, 24, 2021). Training voice assistants to respond to people with speech disabilities could improve the experience of voice-recognition tools for a growing group of potential users, such as seniors, who are more prone to degenerative diseases