Unleashing the mechanism among environmental regulation, artificial intelligence, and global value chain leaps: a roadmap toward digital revolution and environmental sustainability.

Strengthening environmental regulation and adhering to the green as well as sustainable development of China's manufacturing industry has become an inevitable trend. Technological innovation leads to industrial transformation, and artificial intelligence becomes a new driving force for core competitiveness and value chain upgrading. Is there a link between environmental regulation, artificial intelligence, and the jump in global value chains? Does AI have a mediating effect? This paper draws the following conclusions through panel estimation: environmental regulation plays a positive role in global value chains, and artificial intelligence has improved the level of global value chains as well. Further analysis of the mediation effect of artificial intelligence finds that artificial intelligence replaces low-end labor, reduces labor costs for enterprises, and promotes the leap of the global value chain. The strengthening of environmental regulation has greatly improved the total factor productivity of enterprises, artificial intelligence has significantly improved production efficiency, and total factor productivity has shown a positive influence on the global value chain as well.