Open government data as a driver for artificial intelligence innovation

Abstract As the digital economy era arrives, the data factor plays a crucial role in artificial intelligence innovation. Governments, as the principal custodians and generators of data, hold a vast repository of core data. It remains unclear whether open government data promote artificial intelligence innovation. Based on the data-driven innovation paradigm, this article constructs a theoretical model to explain how open government data improve artificial intelligence innovation and then empirically explores the impacts of open government data on artificial intelligence innovation. Specifically, with data on 281 Chinese cities from 2008 to 2023, this research adopts staggered difference-in-differences (DID) and spatial DID approaches to explore the direct and spatial spillover effects of open government data on artificial intelligence innovation. The main findings can be summarised as follows: Open government data not only positively influence artificial intelligence innovation in a certain city but also foster artificial intelligence innovation in neighbouring cities. Enterprises play a dominant role in driving innovation within the artificial intelligence industry compared both to universities and colleges and to research institutes. These conclusions provide theoretical insights and practical suggestions for improving artificial intelligence innovation from a data-driven perspective.