”We’re seeking to make AI helpful for everyone – including the planet” : An Analysis of How AI Companies Legitimise AI Expansion Through Sustainability Discourse

Sammanfattning

As artificial intelligence rapidly expands, concerns regarding its environmental impact have become increasingly visible. At the same time, leading AI companies increasingly position AI as essential for sustainability, climate solutions, and the future societal development. This study explores how AI expansion is legitimised in relation to sustainability and which discursive strategies are used to manage tensions between technological innovation and resource consumption. Drawing on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and van Leeuwen’s framework of legitimation, the analysis demonstrates how AI is framed as environmental responsible, socially beneficial, and necessary for global progress. The findings suggest that sustainability communication within the AI industry may function as a form of discursive greenwashing, where selective visibility, future-oriented narratives, and techno-solutionist rhetoric obscure the broader environmental consequences of AI infrastructure. The study argues that sustainability discourse functions not only as communication about environmental responsibility, but also as a broader legitimacy-building practice that shapes how AI development is understood within society. In this sense, the discourse surrounding AI contributes to constructing technological expansion as both environmentally compatible and socially inevitable.