Now that the coalition negotiations have come to an end and the new coalition has published its plans, we comment on them and take a critical look at the plans regarding AI and innovation in Germany.
Our statement
The coalition agreement addresses many important topics and is already forward-looking in this respect. For example, the promotion of late-stage startups, the creation of a data institute or the consistent digitization of administration. We are particularly pleased that the future German government has clearly identified artificial intelligence as a key technology for the coming years. One thing is clear: the right priorities have been set here.
But it is also clear that we have learned from the last legislative period that it is not enough to simply make promises, but that these must be backed up by measurable indicators of success and concrete concepts. In this respect, the coalition agreement is not very specific on the important digital and future issues.
Unfortunately, the coalition agreement lacks clear ideas on how data protection is to be harmonized and access to data improved. The same applies to the promises to give startups easier access to public contracts and to make employee share ownership more attractive. Here, it remains open how these goals are to be achieved. We are also disappointed that lighthouse projects in the field of AI did not make it into the coalition agreement. Here, the future federal government has missed out on firmly anchoring important and effective projects in the legislative period.
A clear sense of new beginnings can be read from the coalition agreement.There is now an opportunity to use the many good ideas to develop Germany as an AI and technology location with full vigor. For this, we need the support of the German government.
The president of the German AI Association, Jörg Bienert, says: “In the last legislative period, we saw that the comprehensive strategies for AI and data were implemented completely inadequately. We expect the new government to quickly translate the ideas from the coalition agreement into concrete projects that really advance AI and digitization.”