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Comment by 5_minutes | Hacker News Reader

Germany is still not allowed to have an offensive army, so it makes a lot of sense to at least stay first class in tech, and in AI, in order to stay relevant as a world leader for the future.

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The Kellog-Briand pact prohibits signatories (including the US) from offensive wars anyway. Article 2 of the United Nations Charter states that members shouldn't even use threats of offensive actions. And the Grundgesetz obviously bans offensive wars as well.

Not sure what you're thinking, but you're waaaaaay out there.

They are basically not allowed to have a real army, still just like Japan, "only defence armies".

I'm not talking about offense acts or actions. I'm talking about being allowed to do miletary R&D and actually being allowed to have a real army out there. They don't.

So how far off is it to assume they're assertive with AI to make up for it?

Technically, the GG only bans preparing an offensive war. But what kind of German would improvise that kind of thing?

Everyone in Germany I know who actually made a world-class product had to escape some inept manager at some large German corporation, and those people are automatically excluded from any government subsidies due to a lack of political contacts. So the money will go to people with political skills and buzzword bingo, likely not being able to understand anything they are talking about. Then, in 5 years everyone will look back and wonder why Germany is again 5 years behind and resorts to importing all software from US; then external factors will be found to blame (or some poor scapegoats that didn't cover their backs). And a next gen of clueless managers will step up for another cycle with another hot technology.

German automakers and other heavy industry makes some world-class products and are politically connected up the yin yang

I was talking specifically about SW industry. It's actually an issue that plenty of people think the same approaches that made Germany great in automotive could be applied to software as well...

OK, if you're specifically talking about software. Software has certainly not been Germany's forte... But there's more to the world than software - and those industries will also bake AI into whatever they're making.

Most of the automotive research in AI by German automakers is done in their Silicon Valley research centers. Most of the low-level work to produce cars is done in V4 countries. The rest is done in Germany.

The Bundeswehr ist plenty offensive. Their tacky ads that compare war to computer games ("never fight alone!" -- like, don't just play games alone, join the Bundeswehr) are enough.

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