Sustainable development and investment in artificial intelligence in the USA

Abstract

Business practices and government policies are rapidly being reshaped by artificial intelligence (AI) in today’s world. However, it is still unclear whether AI will accelerate or hinder progress on sustainable development goals. Within this perspective, the present study aims to capture the asymmetric effect of investment in AI on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) index in the USA while taking into account green electricity and gross domestic product. Using newly developed estimators, the study explores this relationship by considering non-linearity. The results point to the fact that (i) there is a long-run asymmetric linkage between AI, SDGs, GDP, and green electricity; (ii) AI investment contributes to sustainable development positively in the USA; (iii) green electricity contributes to sustainable development in a positive way; (iv) SDGs index is negatively affected by economic growth.