AI and sustainability

Ongoing research:

I am currently working with my PhD student, Kanxuan (Molly) Gu, on a research project examining how green technologies (i.e., climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies) incorporate AI components to achieve their objectives. We are also investigating how institutional dynamics and resource allocation shape organizations' incentives to pursue this particular mission-driven direction of innovation.

Our preliminary findings suggest that organizations developing AI-enabled green technologies generally fall into two categories: those with prior investments in green technologies and those in the oil and gas industry. Interestingly, organizations primarily focused on AI do not appear to be actively engaged in the development of AI-enabled green technologies. We also find that organizations pursuing this direction of innovation rely significantly on government funding to support their R&D activities.

Selected publications:

• Wang, J., Conejero, J. A., Hoyas, S., Lobo, J., & Vinuesa, R. (2026). Strengthening and safeguarding artificial intelligence for a planet under pressure. Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aebee4

• Kim, S., Wang, J., Janssen, M. A., & Anderies, J. M. (2025). How Large Language Models Systematically Misrepresent American Climate Opinions (arXiv:2512.23889). arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.23889

• Wang, J., Lobo, J., Shutters, S. T., & Strumsky, D. (2024). Fueling a net-zero future: The influence of government-funded research on climate change mitigation inventions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 51, 100836. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2024.100836

• Wang, J., & Solís, P. (2025). Identifying latent workforce capacities for extreme heat resilience: An artificial intelligence assisted approach. Energy and AI, 21, 100580. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyai.2025.100580