Artificial Intelligence and Industrial Ecologization

Promoting industrial ecologization through intelligent technologies is crucial for advancing ecological civilization. Based on panel data from 285 cities between 2011 and 2022, this study empirically investigates the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on industrial ecologization using a double machine learning model. The results show that AI significantly enhances the level of industrial ecologization, and this finding remains pronounced under various robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that AI facilitates industrial ecologization by promoting green innovation, improving energy efficiency, and advancing green finance. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that AI has a significantly positive effect in non-resource-based cities and cities with well-developed digital economies, but a negative effect in resource-based cities. Further analysis shows that AI significantly improves the static efficiency of industrial ecologization transformation, but does not significantly enhance dynamic efficiency. These findings suggest the need to deepen the application of AI in the transformation toward industrial ecologization and to formulate localized strategies to leverage intelligent technologies for sustainable industrial development.