Artificial Intelligence for Real Sustainability? -- What is Artificial Intelligence and Can it Help with the Sustainability Transformation?

The discussion about the disruptive possibilities of a technology called artificial intelligence (AI) is on everyone's lips. Companies and countries alike are running multi-billion-dollar research programmes to ensure they do not miss out on the global innovation hunt. Among many other applications, AI is also supposed to aid the large-scale changes needed to achieve sustainable societies. To assess those claims and possibilities, this article briefly explains, classifies, and theorises AI technology and then politically contextualises that analysis in light of the sustainability discourse. Based on those insights it finally argues, that AI can play a small role in moving towards sustainable societies, however the fixation on technological innovation, especially AI, obscures and depoliticises the necessary societal decisions regarding sustainability goals and means as mere technicalities and therefore rather obstructs real and effective societal transformation efforts.