Regional artificial intelligence and the geography of environmental technologies: does local AI knowledge help regional green-tech specialization?

We investigate the extent to which artificial intelligence (AI) is harnessed by regions for specializing in green technologies. By considering the transformative role that AI is playing in the invention process and connecting it to the regional development of environmental technologies, we examine the relationship between green-revealed technological advantages and local AI for EU-28 (NUTS-3) regions over the period 1982–2017. Results show that AI knowledge favours the green-tech specialization of regions, provided that they were already green-tech specialized in the past. Conversely, AI even reduces this capacity in regions that have not already specialized in green technologies.