How Germany - the largest middle power - chooses to procure AI systems for state use is a potentially consequential geopolitical decision. The German government is currently developing the "Deutschland-Stack", a reference architecture for its centralized government digital infrastructure. This includes "AI", but primarily its use in government. How the models used in government are accessed, or what models they are, is unclear. References to open-weights models, state-level JPAs for gigafactory capacity, and increasing frontier model adoption all suggest different approaches. Each of these strategies, pursued decisively, may be a viable middle power strategy, but as of now the default path is likely fragmentation.

This project would seek to (a) chart the German government's approach to AI procurement and model access for its own use, including the motivations of different actors (e.g. politicians wanting to support domestic AI development, ...), (b) evaluate what strategic considerations the government should be reflecting, e.g. geopolitical situation, running costs, etc., and to what extent they already are, and (c) develop two outputs:

• A German-language policy memo for the D-Stack department of the federal ministry of digitalization and state modernization, which hopefully contains concrete recommendations for D-Stack "architectures" for AI model use.
  
  

• An English-language explainer for international AI governance researchers, describing the German government ecosystem, key actors and developments on government AI strategy.

Mentees would do desk research, (likely) German-language interviews, and potentially some technical analysis.