Half a million job losses in German industry since 2019

In another modeling study published by the Munich-based institute, it warned that Germany would face the risk of losing 155 billion euros ($173.43 billion) in additional value added annually if access to artificial intelligence training data is made difficult.

According to the research, productive artificial intelligence technologies have the potential to contribute 440 billion euros annually to the German economy by 2034.

The annual loss of 155 billion euros that would occur if data access was restricted was calculated as 45 billion euros from the slowdown in artificial intelligence adoption, 75 billion euros from the weakness of the models, 25 billion euros from the decrease in research outputs and 10 billion euros from the decline in development activities across Europe.

Ifo expert Oliver Falck stated that decision-makers are looking for a balance between innovation and risks at a time when Europe is trying to catch up with the USA and China in producing advanced models and said, "Anyone who wants a leading European artificial intelligence model cannot at the same time unnecessarily complicate access to training data. You cannot have both." he said.

Ilhan Scheer, CEO of German artificial intelligence laboratory Aleph Alpha, said in a statement to Reuters, "Access to diverse and high-quality educational data is essential for competitive artificial intelligence. Unnecessary restrictions and legal uncertainty make development difficult." He said Europe should take full advantage of its existing legal framework.

Florian Schewor, DACH region manager of data processing company Celonis, also noted that artificial intelligence can only show its potential if access to data is not blocked, and that the German and European industry has a large amount of data that has not yet been processed.

The report's authors called on policymakers to preserve the EU's exemption from text and data mining for commercial use.

While experts called for the introduction of an enforceable opt-out standard with proportionate transparency rules, they pointed out that regulatory uncertainties are already deterring investments in Europe.

The institute also recently criticized the German government for using the borrowing-based fiscal space allocated for infrastructure and defense expenditures for other purposes.