The dual footprint of artificial intelligence: environmental and social impacts across the globe

Paola Tubaro ()
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Paola Tubaro: CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI - Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI - Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Groupe ENSAE-ENSAI - Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: This article introduces the concept of the 'dual footprint' as a heuristic device to capture the commonalities and interdependencies between the different impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on the natural and social surroundings that supply resources for its production and use. Two in-depth case studies, each illustrating international flows of raw materials and of data work services, portray the AI industry as a value chain that spans national boundaries and perpetuates inherited global inequalities. The countries that drive AI development generate a massive demand for inputs and trigger social costs that, through the value chain, largely fall on more peripheral actors. The arrangements in place distribute the costs and benefits of AI unequally, resulting in unsustainable practices and preventing the upward mobility of more disadvantaged countries. The dual footprint grasps how the environmental and social dimensions of the dual footprint emanate from similar underlying socioeconomic processes and geographical trajectories.

Keywords: offshoring; value chains; data work; labour footprint; material footprint; Artificial intelligence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05384319v1
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Published in Globalizations, 2026, SI-The Political Economy of Green-Digital Transition, 23 (4), pp.819-836. ⟨10.1080/14747731.2025.2589571⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05384319

DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2025.2589571

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