ZURICH,November 02 (AJP) - Germany’s new AI safety institute will work with Canada, its digital minister announced Monday. The plan came as Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that Europe is running out of time to catch up in AI.
The announcement came at a two-day government summit on AI in Berlin. There, a government task force presented a report warning that the window for Germany to close the gap with the world’s AI leaders “is closing soon.” It set a goal of making Germany an “AI nation” by 2030.
In his speech, Merz said Germany was caught in a “storm of technological transformation.” He said that a single law can take so long to pass that three new generations of AI models are developed in the meantime.
Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger said the institute would cooperate with Canada. Called AISI Deutschland, it opened in Berlin in early September 2026 and is built around two existing federal agencies, the Federal Officefor Information Security and the Federal Network Agency. It is not a regulator but is meant to assess the risks of advanced AI models. No timeline for the cooperation with Canada was given.
Merz said Germany had also helped launch a European Frontier AI Initiative to put Europe at the forefront of the technology. He said cooperation with France and Canada would help Europe share knowledge and build alternatives to the dominant American AI models.
He set out a two-track plan. In the short term, Germany will support AI built for industry, an area where its electronics and machinery makers already benefit from the global AI boom. In the longer term, it will fund research into future systems, including AI-powered robots.
The two-day summit in Berlin, which ends Tuesday, was expected to draw more than 1,000 guests. They include digital ministers from across Europe and Canada and the heads of two AI companies, Mistral of France and Cohere of Canada.
The Canada announcement builds on months of closer ties. In February, Germany and Canada signed a joint declaration on AI, and last week the EU and Canada launched a broader partnership that also covers the technology.
AJP Takeaways
- Germany’s AI safety institute, AISI Deutschland, will cooperate with Canada, German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger announced at a government AI summit in Berlin.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned at the Berlin summit that Germany was caught in a “storm of technological transformation” and that Europe is running out of time to catch up in AI.
- A German government AI task force set the goal of making Germany an “AI nation” by 2030.
- Tags: Germany, Canada, Friedrich Merz, Karsten Wildberger, European Frontier AI Initiative, Mistral, Cohere, artificial intelligence, AI safety institute, European Union
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