<p>Currently, the technological revolution represented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) not only drives substantial changes in productivity and profoundly alters people's lifestyle, but also provides solid technological support for sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to explore the degree, mechanism and temporal characteristics of AI's effect on Sustainable development based on data from 280 prefecture level cities in China. Therefore, this article comprehensively employs various econometric methods such as entropy weight method, SBM model, fixed effects model and TVP-SV-VAR model. The research results indicate that AI's effect on sustainable development is positive and this conclusion has passed a series of robustness tests. AI could ameliorate sustainable development by improving energy efficiency and optimizing energy structure. Besides, the heterogeneity analysis reveals significantly improvement of AI's effect on sustainable development in eastern and central regions, while the influence is insignificant in western region. Further analysis illustrates that AI's effect on sustainable development exhibits time-varying characteristics, whether the pulse response applied at different lag periods or different time points. Based on the above research conclusions, this article believes that government should formulate policy measures to promote the development of AI according to local conditions, especially focusing on the deep integration of AI and energy industry. In addition, the formulation and implementation of policies should keep pace with the times, and adjust them in a prompt manner.</p>