Germany must commit billions of euros to back a planned strategy to develop artificial intelligence (AI) or risk falling further behind the US and China, a senior government lawmaker said on Friday.
The warning by Social Democratic Party (SDP) General Secretary Lars Klingbeil came less than two weeks before German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s squabbling coalition is due to sign off on the blueprint.
An initial draft released earlier this year fell short of expectations, Klingbeil wrote in a commentary for the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
“We really need a breakout. We have to stop taking it easy,” he wrote.
Policymakers in Europe’s largest economy have been late to realize that its industrial export model is vulnerable at a time of rapid digitalization and growing trade frictions.
Automakers, such as Volkswagen AG or Daimler AG, are vulnerable to competition from asset-light companies, such as ride-hailing platform Uber Technologies Inc, that use artificial intelligence — essentially computers that can be trained to solve problems — to crunch data and run digital services.
Germany, handicapped by an outdated research infrastructure and restrictive data protection laws, has yet to produce a world-beating start-up that pioneers the use of AI, although 100 companies have formed a lobby group to contribute to the policy process.
Klingbeil, whose party is Merkel’s junior partner in government, faulted Germany for taking its eye off the ball and getting caught up in the “hysteria” around a three-year-old immigration crisis while other countries were investing in AI research.
“We need a concrete investment strategy for AI that is backed by a sum in the billions,” he wrote in the article published yesterday.
Researchers at CB Insights estimate that global investments in AI start-ups tripled last year to US$7.3 billion.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS