Journal of Statistics and Information

The digital economy is a new form of economy that has emerged following the agricultural and industrial economies,while technological breakthroughs represented by artificial intelligence have become the driving force of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the core engine for promoting high-quality regional economic development.It is evident that the integration of artificial intelligence and the digital economy holds significant importance in accelerating the development of an intelligent economy.Onthe basis,after analyzing the possibilities and feasibility of the integration of artificial intelligence and the digital economy,this study uses data of artificial intelligence and the digital economy from 30 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2022,applying the entropy method and coupling coordination degree model to measure the level and degree of integration between artificial intelligence and the digital economy.Using the Dagum Gini coefficient and kernel density estimation to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of the integration level.And employing geographic detectors and Moran's I to explore the influencing factors and spatial correlations of the integration level.The results show that the integration level of artificial intelligence and the digital economy nationwide,as well as in the three major regions,is steadily rising,indicating that the industries of artificial intelligence and the digital economy receive high government attention and are key targets of industrial policy,with policies achieving tangible results.However,the integration level exhibits distinct “high in the east,low in the west” and “economically dependent” distribution characteristics,with the eastern regions displaying both high levels and high growth rates of coupling coordination.Provinces with higher integration levels are mostly located in the eastern and some central regions,while provinces with lower integration levels are mainly in the western regions.The integration grade gradually improves,shifting from low-level to mid-level coordination.Both absolute and relative differences in integration levels continue to expand,making spatial differences increasingly pronounced,with interregional differences being the main source of spatial disparity.Industrial scale,knowledge creation,infrastructure,and innovation capacity significantly affect the improvement of the integration level,with the interaction between AI patents and industrial robots being a key focus for advancing integration to a higher level.The integration level also exhibits significant positive spatial correlation,with most regions mainly distributed in the first and third quadrants,where regions with higher(or lower) coupling coordination are more prone to clustering.Research on the integration of artificial intelligence and the digital economy provides theoretical support for the formulation of differentiated regional AI policies by the state and promotes coordinated development of technology and the economy.To further promote higher-level integration of artificial intelligence and the digital economy,it is necessary in the future to strengthen coordinated regional development to narrow the integration gap,enhance innovation-driven efforts to improve the core competitiveness of such integration,and improve digital infrastructure to solidify the foundation for the development of integrated AI and digital economy.