Artificial Intelligence Strategy of the German Federal Government 2020 Update

With the update of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the Federal Government has been focusing its measures on current developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) since the strategy was adopted in November 2018. The update aims to strengthen Germany as an internationally competitive centre of AI research, development and application. This entails further establishing and expanding AI ecosystems1 in Germany and Europe to strengthen the application of AI on a broad scale and, at the same time, to promote the visibility of outstanding initiatives and structures. Responsible and public good-oriented development and application of AI systems should be made an integral part and thus a trademark of an “AI Made in Europe”. In addition to this, the update puts pandemic control, sustainability – in particular environmental and climate protection – and international and European networking at the heart of new initiatives.

Achieving this entails

• training, attracting and retaining more AI specialists in Germany,

• establishing powerful and internationally visible research structures and, in particular, providing internationally competitive cutting-edge AI and computing infrastructures,

• establishing AI ecosystems with an international reach, based on excellent research and transfer structures, in order to foster research results being applied in business practice, especially in the SME sector or Mittelstand, and to boost start-up dynamics,

• bolstering the underlying conditions for innovative and human-centric AI applications in Germany and Europe by establishing and expanding the quality infrastructure into a system for safe, secure and trustworthy AI on the basis of an appropriate regulatory framework; and

• supporting civil society networking and its involvement in the development and use of AI that serves the common good.