This article introduces the concept of the 'dual footprint' as a heuristic device to capture the commonalities and interdependencies between the different impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on the natural and social surroundings that supply resources for its production and use. Two in-depth case studies, each illustrating international flows of raw materials and of data work services, portray the AI industry as a value chain that spans national boundaries and perpetuates inherited global inequalities. The countries that drive AI development generate a massive demand for inputs and trigger social costs that, through the value chain, largely fall on more peripheral actors. The arrangements in place distribute the costs and benefits of AI unequally, resulting in unsustainable practices and preventing the upward mobility of more disadvantaged countries. The dual footprint grasps how the environmental and social dimensions of the dual footprint emanate from similar underlying socioeconomic processes and geographical trajectories.

翻译：本文引入‘双重足迹’概念作为一种启发式工具，用以捕捉人工智能（AI）对其生产和使用所依赖的自然与社会环境产生的不同影响之间的共性与相互依存关系。两项深入案例研究分别展示了原材料和数据劳动服务的国际流动，将AI产业描绘为一条跨越国界并延续既有全球不平等的价值链。推动AI发展的国家产生了巨大的投入需求并引发社会成本，这些成本通过价值链主要落在更为边缘的参与者身上。现有安排不平等地分配了AI的成本与收益，导致不可持续的做法，并阻碍了更弱势国家的向上流动。双重足迹揭示了环境与社会维度的双重影响如何源自相似的基础社会经济过程与地理轨迹。