Abstract: Clarifying the impact mechanism of artificial intelligence (AI) development on rural-urban common prosperity is crucial for promoting coordinated rural-urban development and achieving rural-urban common prosperity. Based on the panel data of 267 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2011 to 2022, this paper employs mediating effect models, moderating effect models, and panel threshold models to empirically analyze the impact and mechanisms of AI on rural-urban common prosperity. The key findings are as follows: (1) AI contributes to increasing rural residents' income but it may also exacerbate the urban-rural income gap, thus affecting the realization of rural-urban common prosperity; (2) the impact of AI on rural-urban common prosperity varies significantly across different regions and city sizes; (3) AI influences rural-urban common prosperity through mediating variables such as urbanization and industrial structure upgrading; (4) the construction of digital infrastructure enhances the positive impact of AI on rural residents' income while inhibiting the positive effect of AI on the urban-rural income gap; (5) with the aging of the population, AI's effect on rural residents' disposable income exhibits a threshold effect, showing a "V"-shaped trend of initially decreasing and then increasing.