aceThe Environmental Cost of AI Hype: Corporate AI Catering, Pollution Emissions, and Sustainability Governance
The long development cycle and high investment requirements of artificial intelligence (AI) conflict with the short-term incentives prevailing in capital markets, leading some firms to cater to market expectations through promotional rhetoric rather than substantive investment, possibly at the expense of long-term sustainability commitments. This study examines whether such AI catering affects corporate pollution and under which conditions. Using Chinese A-share listed firms with firm-level emission records from…
Substantive AI input, meaning actual AI investment predicted by observable inputs, is associated with lower pollution emission intensity among Chinese listed firms.
AI catering, or AI disclosure exceeding what substantive AI input predicts, is associated with higher corporate pollution emission intensity, partly through lower environmental investment and weaker environmental disclosure quality.
The evidence is an association drawn from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2016 to 2024 and explains only part of the link through the tested channels, so it does not establish universal causal effects.
Evidence
- Peer-reviewedSustainability2026-10-20
How should this claim be treated?
Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-2116, v1: “The Environmental Cost of AI Hype: Corporate AI Catering, Pollution Emissions, and Sustainability Governance.” Truvace, 2026-10-21. /record/TRV-2026-2116 (accessed at citation time). sha256 b68896032d0e5d4e…
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