The German government has announced plans to almost double its public funding for artificial intelligence (AI) research over the next two years.

The announcement was made by research minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger on Wednesday, with public funding set to increase to nearly €1 billion.

The minister said that the country wants to create 150 new university labs for AI research while also expanding data centres and improving the availability of complex public data sets.

Though it is at the forefront of the auto industry, Germany has historically been slow to adopt newer technologies as a country. Cash is still commonly used for transactions while a recently published study from German digital advocacy group Bitkom showed that 82 per cent of German companies still use fax machines.

The investment boost will serve as a boon to researchers in the country but it is still significantly lower than the $3.3 billion spent on AI research by the US government in 2022, according to Stanford research. Overall AI spend in the US reached $47.7 billion in 2022, representing almost double the total spend in Europe.

Stark-Watzinger said that the emerging regulatory framework in Europe around AI which places greater weight on privacy and personal safety along with cooperation within the European Union could attract foreign firms to set up shop in the country.

She said: "We have AI that is explainable, trustworthy and transparent. That's a competitive advantage."

The minister also noted that the number of AI startups in Germany has doubled so far in 2023, though it is still only ranked ninth globally.

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