Dr. Alona Barnea, Director of the Neurotechnology Division at the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D), addressed the International DefenseTech Summit led by the IMOD’s DDR&D, in collaboration with the Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology & Security at Tel Aviv University.
Dr. Barnea further stated: “What has changed over the past two years is an unprecedented scale of mental health casualties – mental crisis has become a national phenomenon. The tools at our disposal are no longer sufficient, which is why we are leading the defense-tech sector into the realm of mental health and cognitive resilience.
“Before October 7th, we focused primarily on integrating artificial intelligence with the human brain. Since the war, we have channeled these capabilities toward strengthening mental resilience. The number of startups in this field has surged beyond expectations – we discovered that mental health is relevant to nearly every company we work with, enabling us to adapt existing technologies into solutions for this domain.
“We are rethinking how we treat and prevent post-trauma, aiming to create change at both the individual and national levels. It’s important to emphasize: these technologies are not meant to replace therapists, but rather to expand reach. AI and big data will serve as tools for extracting deeper insights from therapeutic processes, identifying new patterns, and enabling therapists to improve treatment quality and reach more people who need it,” she said.