The Relationship between Artificial Intelligence and China’s Sustainable Economic Growth: Focused on the Mediating Effects of Industrial Structural Change

Abstract

In recent years, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a significant impact on economic development. This study examined the relationship between the level of AI development and economic growth in 28 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2018, and we focused on the mediating role of the industrial structure. We found that the unreasonable state of the structure is an important reason behind the slowdown of China’s economic growth. The development of AI not only has a direct effect on economic growth, but can also improve economic slowdown by inhibiting industrial structure upgrading. Taking into account regional heterogeneity, we also conducted sub-regional regressions, and the results show that this mediating effect is particularly significant in the eastern, central, and western areas of China; the regression results also show that the development of AI technologies did not boost the economy before the 2008 financial crisis, but during the economic recovery period, the R&D and application of AI helped China’s economy to rebound. Thus, AI has gradually become an important power engine for high-quality and sustainable growth in China’s economy.

The Impact of AI on Economic Growth Between China and the United States During the Period 20112021

“…Supporting the rapid development of AI by supporting that Industrial structure upgrading is an influential mediating variable for artificial intelligence to promote China's economic growth. Like other authors, this author also said that the Chinese policymaker has been one of the most significant issues programmers and engineers face [5]. Anton & Joseph suggest that AI may exacerbate poverty and inequality in developing countries and that AI would be more beneficial to the development of developed countries [6].…”

“…AI has gradually become the core driving force for sustainable economic growth since AI not only directly contributes to regional development and avoids industrial over-upgrading. Even though AI potentially causes a lower level of rationalization, the impacts of AI on economic growth are significantly positive in total [5]. Pradhan provided evidence from 49 European countries to support the hypothesis that technological innovation and financial development are critical factors of per capita economic growth for European countries in the short and long run [8].…”

“…To research the effects of AI on economic growth, we refer to the model structure of Li [2] on the impact of science and technology innovation and industrial design upgrading on the sustainable and high-quality development of economies, installation of Fan [5] on the relationship between AI and sustainable economic growth and build a new model based on that.…”

Blockchain: The Economic and Financial Institution for Autonomous AI?

“…The relationship between AI development and economic growth has also been examined at the regional level. Fan and Liu (2021) investigated the relationship between AI development and economic growth in Chinese provinces. Their findings indicate that the development of AI not only has a direct effect on economic growth but also improves economic slowdown by inhibiting industrial structure upgrading.…”

The Impact Relationships between Scientific and Technological Innovation, Industrial Structure Advancement and Carbon Footprints in China Based on the PVAR Model

“…The Khazzoom−Brookes hypothesis also points out the “rebound effect” of energy. Technological innovation promotes economic growth by increasing energy efficiency [ 27 ], but economic growth increases the demand for energy [ 28 ]. The “rebound effect” can lead to a significant increase in output level and energy consumption together, and thus does not determine the relationship between technological innovation and carbon efficiency [ 29 ].…”