BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government has set aside around 3 billion euros for research and development of artificial intelligence, as Europe’s economic powerhouse seeks to close a gap in software-led innovation between it and America and Asia.

The sum to be spent up to 2025, outlined in a draft paper seen by Reuters on “AI made in Germany”, is a measure of the concern felt in Berlin at the challenge that digital technologies and AI pose to Germany’s traditional export-focused manufacturing industries.

The paper also stresses the “social policy and labor” aspects of AI, reflecting nervousness in traditionally privacy-conscious Germany at the way rampant technological change might disrupt existing social models.

“We want to promote the use of AI applications in business,” the paper states. “(But...) a technology with such a profound impact as artificial intelligence... (must) be embedded in a... framework that protects fundamental social values and individual rights.”