Article Data: Solution or Problem? Discourse Analysis of Big Tech’s AI and Sustainability Framing

The empirical material comprises 221 corporate artifacts, including webpages, blog posts, press releases, sustainability reports, and scripted video transcripts, organized into document groups representing eleven AI developers: Alibaba, the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), Amazon, Apple, Google (Alphabet), IBM, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and Perplexity. These companies were selected based on their prominence in AI development and availability of corporate communication addressing their AI and sustainability initiatives. Selection drew on academic literature, media coverage of corporate AI sustainability practices, market rankings of AI tools, and recognition of major AI developers. Data collection primarily spanned late 2022 to mid-2025, coinciding with the accelerated public rollout of generative AI systems. Earlier artifacts (2017–2021) were included for context, such as Microsoft’s “AI for Earth” program launch announcement.