"If Bavaria is to continue to be successful, it must strengthen its entire industry with artificial machine intelligence in the future. That is why we are launching a new artificial intelligence strategy with enormous commitment. Bavaria is set to become one of the world's leading regions for artificial machine intelligence. With new concepts and projects such as MediaLabs and new start-up centers, we are ensuring that the opportunities of digitalization can be exploited in all regions of Bavaria," said Minister President Dr. Markus Söder, explaining the initiative.

Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, emphasizes: "We are delighted to be able to make a significant contribution to the establishment of the new 'Artificial Machine Intelligence' competence network. This is an important step towards advancing this outstanding technological topic of the future in Bavaria. The main aim of the planned activities at the Bavarian Fraunhofer locations will be to accelerate the transfer of knowledge on artificial intelligence and cognitive systems from research to practice.

The plan is to establish a Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems in Munich with a focus on software architectures and model-based software development for dynamic learning systems, artificial intelligence (AI) for autonomous systems and semantic data analysis. The new institute is to be established on the basis of the former Fraunhofer Institute for Embedded Systems and Communication Technology ESK. A new building on the research campus in Garching is also planned in this context.

Furthermore, the focus on 'Digital Signal Processing with AI (DSKI)' at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is to be expanded in the Nuremberg-Erlangen metropolitan region. The aim is to optimize the technical possibilities in the field of audio and image processing as well as message transmission using AI.

In Garching, the aim is to expand the field of cognitive security at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC and to cooperate closely with the Fraunhofer research cluster Cognitive Internet Technologies. In Augsburg and Bayreuth, the blockchain research of the project groups at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT is also to be intensified.

In addition, a new 'Networked Mobility and Infrastructure' application center is to be established in Ingolstadt under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI.