As part of the international networking for the “Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany”, eco Managing Director Alexander Rabe participated in a delegation organized by the Smart Data Forum together with representatives of the German Federal Ministry for the Economy and the project sponsor, the DLR.
The objective of the trip was to exchange information on current and concretely planned initiatives and measures from both countries, against the backdrop of the national AI strategies published by both countries in 2018, in order to identify and discuss potential areas for cooperation.
Important representatives of the German “AI ecosystem” took part in the delegation, in order to ensure broad coverage of the German perspectives in the discussions and workshops. The topic of “digital infrastructures” and the associated question “Where does artificial intelligence live?” were introduced and discussed directly on the first day of the delegation in the opening workshop with the title, “Scaling AI in Europe – Architectures and Governance of Future AI Platforms”.
Further participants of the delegation included Prof. Volker Markl (TU Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Nagel and Dr. René Jäkel (TU Dresden) as important representatives of the German research competence centers. Representatives of further relevant institutions, initiatives, and associations in Germany included Daniel Krupka (Gesellschaft für Informatik), Herr Edgar André (Digital Hib Initiative GTAI), and Ingo Hoffmann (AppliedAI). In addition, with an award-winning startup, Jörg Gottschlich from meshcloud represented the perspective of the German startup scene.
In the presentations and discussions, relevant areas of successful AI development such as research, transfer and innovation, digital infrastructures, startup funding, and training and professional development were touched upon.
It became clear that both countries predominantly complement one another with regards to their strengths and competencies.
It confirmed the earlier assertion of Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, from his speech calling for a close alliance between Germany and Sweden at the Hannover Messe 2018, that “We can learn a lot from one another.”
