Google opened its first German AI Center in Berlin on March 5. The event was attended by representatives from politics, business, and science, including Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär, Federal Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger, Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner, and Prof. Fabian Theis from Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), who is also Chairman of the Bavarian AI Council.

The new AI Center is intended to serve as a platform for collaboration between science, business, politics, and society in the field of artificial intelligence. The goal is to strengthen AI research and its application in Germany and to expand international cooperation.

Funding for AI research in the healthcare sector

As part of the initiative, two AI research projects involving Fabian Theis were selected for funding by the "AI for Science Fund" from Google.org. The projects are among twelve initiatives funded worldwide and together receive two million US dollars.

One of the funded projects, "NextGen Health GenAI Benchmarks," is led by Fabian Theis and Prof. Daniel Rückert (TUM). The aim is to develop strict evaluation standards for generative AI in healthcare to improve the reliability and safety of AI-based systems in clinical applications.

In addition, Fabian Theis leads the "Single Cell Foundation Models" project at Helmholtz Munich. AI methods are used to better understand the diversity of individual cells. The research aims to contribute to more precisely analyzing disease mechanisms and enabling new approaches for diagnosis and therapy.