Germany should become the driving force in AI research - ahead of the British.

  "In research on artificial intelligence, Germany should overtake Great Britain and reach the top of Europe. AI "Made in Germany" should also be able to differ from the USA or China.

 

     The Federal Ministry of Research aims for Germany to take a leading position in the world in research on artificial intelligence (AI). “Our goal must be to be at the forefront of research and to establish ourselves as a clear European driving force,” says an “Artificial Intelligence Action Plan” that Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger presented on Tuesday in Berlin.

 

     The FDP politician described AI as perhaps the central key technology of the 21st century.

 

     Artificial intelligence has also been a topic among the general public since the chat robot ChatGPT was activated almost a year ago.

 

     The 36-page action plan lists the ministry's areas of work, goals and various measures and once again mentions the sum of 1.6 billion euros that it wants to invest in this area in the current legislative period. The aim is therefore, among other things, for Germany to reach the European top in publications on AI ahead of Great Britain, to establish its AI research institutions as leading European AI research institutions and to provide an internationally competitive "high-performance computing infrastructure for scientific purposes".

 

     It is also about the question of how AI “Made in Germany” could differ from the USA or China. Opportunities are seen, for example, in the integration of artificial intelligence with the digitalization of industry, which is considered a successful German model. The paper was criticized by the Federal Association of German Industries though.

 

     It waives clear financing commitments for the expansion of the domestic AI infrastructure. This could go against the desired technological sovereignty of Germany and Europe and increase dependence on providers from the USA, it said in a statement on Tuesday." [1]

 

1. Deutschland soll "Zugpferd" in KI-Forschung werden - vor den Briten. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. Nov 7, 2023.