EFFECT OF AIR POLLUTION MITIGATION BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGY ON URBAN RESIDENTS’ HEALTH: EVIDENCE FROM 286 CITIES IN CHINA

The technological revolution represented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) not only drives substantial changes in productivity, but also provides powerful impetus for profoundly altering people’s lifestyle. This article explores the effect of AI on residents’ health with a fixed effects model, TVP-SVVAR model and data of 286 cities from 2011 to 2023 in China. The results indicate that AI can decrease mortality rates and improve resident health. Mechanism analysis shows that AI improves resident health by mitigating air pollution. Heterogeneity analysis reveals AI exerts a significant improvement effect in the eastern and central regions, while the positive effect is insignificant in the western region. Further analysis illustrates that long term effects of AI on resident health exhibit time-varying characteristics. The above findings could provide insights and suggestions into air pollution suppression and resident health enhancement for prefecture cities of China.