Now Germany has announced that it plans to almost double its public funding for AI research to nearly a billion euros over the next two years as, like the UK, it looks to compete and close the skills gap with China and the United States.
According to research minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger the figure is modest, especially when compared to the billions being spent by the public sector in the US – approximately $3.3 billion in 2022, according to a Stanford University report. In fact, the gap is far greater when private AI spending in the US is considered. That stood at over $47bn in 2022, while in China the figure was more than $13bn – putting both the UK’s and Germany’s announcements in perspective.
Germany is looking to create 150 new university labs for AI research, expanding data centres and making accessible complex public data sets from which AI can be used to draw insights.
And Stark-Watzinger made the interesting point that the emerging regulatory framework being developed in Europe could actually help to attract businesses to the region, especially from those with an interest in delivering greater privacy and personal safety.
Like the rest of Europe Germany is some way behind the market leaders but can point to the fact that the number of AI start-ups doubled in 2023.
