The Construction Path of Artificial Intelligence Technology on Human Practice and Ethical Values ^†

Abstract

As a product of existing mode of production, artificial intelligence has changed people’s daily practice and constructed three practice paths, including (1) human hands are liberated in intelligent technology, (2) human activities rely on intelligent technology, and (3) human efficiency is significantly improved by intelligent technology. This practice path is constructed from a long-term and macro perspective, but from a near-term and micro perspective, the ethical values based on this practical path are constructed in three sets of two laws: the (1) liberation of hands and monotonous division of labor, (2) technological dependence and cognitive limitations, and the (3) efficiency and loss of life. According to Marxist philosophy, the development of artificial intelligence will continue to be reflected in the abandonment of the two laws, that is, it will be reflected in the spiraling process from the short term to the long term, from micro to macro.

1. Introduction

As Professor Winston puts it, “Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make computers do intelligent work that only humans could do in the past.” From the point of view of Marxist philosophy, artificial intelligence technology is the product of the existing mode of production, subject to the law of the general process of “production-exchange-distribution-consumption” social reproduction; human beings create new needs for the production of intelligent technology, and the new needs stimulate the continuous development of intelligent technology. Marx added “need” in notebook III of his 1844 Manuscript on the Philosophy of Economics: “What is the meaning of the richness of human needs, and thus what is the meaning of a new mode of production and a new object of production” [1] (p. 339). Human needs to exert intelligent technology to influence intelligent technology as a new production mode and production object to affect people’s lives; therefore, whether in terms of practical methods or ethical values, the impact of artificial intelligence technology on us is unprecedented.

Due to the limitations of the development of productivity, even if intelligent technology replaces human work in some fields, most of the work of intelligent technology still requires a certain degree of human manipulation at this stage, which has also caused certain changes in the way human practice is formed; in addition, due to the increasing participation of intelligent technology in human life, it has become an indisputable fact that ethical values suitable for human beings are imposed on intelligent technology. Therefore, today, if we want to understand the substantial changes caused by intelligent technology to human life, we must grasp the path of its effect on the way human practice is carried out, and the ethical value changes based on it, and we need to explore these paths.

2. The Path of Intelligent Technology to the Construction of Human Practice

As the latest form of technological development, artificial intelligence is involved in all aspects of human life, and in such relationships, human beings not only free their hands and brains in some areas but relearn skills to adapt to the era of intelligent technology. In such a context, this part outlines three major paths of human practice in the era of intelligent technology: (1) human hands are liberated by intelligent technology, (2) human activities are dependent on intelligent technology, and (3) human efficiency is significantly improved by intelligent technology.

2.1. Human Hands Are Liberated by Intelligent Technology

With the emergence of smart phones and smart home appliances, people’s lives are becoming more and more convenient. In the field of labor, artificial intelligence can use machines to work, thereby freeing people’s hands from machine labor, giving people more free time, and humans only need to speak or press a button to entrust the machine with all its work. Adam Smith linked the development of industrial society to the living conditions of workers, and he believed that the more rapidly industry developed, the better the living conditions of workers would be, which made perfect sense at the macro level. For example, in factories, if artificial intelligence technology is more common, the lower its cost of use, and the improvement effect of artificial intelligence technology in the human division of labor model would be more significant. In the new era, in the new labor background of the combination of production and technology, machine and intelligent technology are very likely to be closely combined, so when artificial intelligence technology is an important part of the popularization of the production field, it will very likely fit Adam Smith’s view. This situation will, at least, be reflected in the factories in which machinery is widely used; if conditions permit, this machinery can rely on artificial intelligence to operate automatically, which will reduce the burden of workers to a certain extent.

The same is true for entertainment, in which we do not even need to look for casual music or games on the web page, and instead just issue verbal commands. In fact, with smart technology, on a macro level, we can reduce the effort of our labor in any field, but only at the ideal and macro level.

2.2. Human Activities Are Dependent on Intelligent Technology

In the process of artificial intelligence participating in human activities, both the subjective realm of people and the objective realm of things will gradually be occupied by it, resulting in a certain degree of intelligent-technology dependence. On the one hand, with the development of smart devices, part of our lives has gradually shifted to the screen, and the use of algorithms in intelligent machines has achieved the precise positioning of user needs, which, to a certain extent, reduces people’s initiative in treating intelligent machines.

On the other hand, in the field of tools, humans have gone through the stage of “creating tools” to “exchanging/buying tools” and then to “automatic tool upgrades”. In the first two stages, humans create or buy tools just to make life more convenient, or to make it more efficient, and people need to use the tools themselves; in the latter stage, people only need to buy a machine, which can do expected or even unexpected work for us, and the interaction between humans and machines is reduced, which means that in these areas, people must rely on intelligent machines to get what they need.

2.3. Human Efficiency Is Significantly Improved by Intelligent Technology

When intelligent machines help human activities, the hands freed by the machine have the opportunity to engage in other activities; thus, time is saved either for entertainment or for other work. This represents an increase in efficiency. For example, as most modern work uses computers, if the development of intelligent technology can help humans to process data more quickly and accurately, this will save human screen time when working on the computer.

3. The Path of Intelligent Technology to the Construction of Human Ethical Values

Marx pointed out the difference between the materialist view of history and the idealistic view of history in “The German Ideology”: “It does not look for a certain category in each era, but always stands on the basis of real history, and does not explain practice from ideas, but from material practice to explain conceptual things” [1] (p. 43). “With the participation of intelligent technology, the production practice mode of human society has undergone leaps and bounds, and the corresponding ethical issues naturally cannot be ignored”. From a microscopic point of view, there are still many contradictions between intelligent technology and human activities, and the construction path of ethical values based on practice can be mainly manifested as three sets of two contradictory laws.

3.1. Liberation of Hands and Monotonous Division of Labor

In his Manuscript, Marx quoted Schultz as a testament to the miserable situation of the working class at that time: “There is no great difference between people working by machines and people working as machines... Get noticed by people” [1] (p. 234). After the beginning of the industrial revolution, as people used machines to work more and more frequently, human labor under the influence of machines gradually became one-sided and monotonous. Marx believed that people did not use their senses in the operation of machines, “The relationship between these organs and objects is the realization of human reality” [1] (p. 303). “Man affirms himself in the object world not only by thinking, but also with all his senses” [1] (p. 305). This liberation of hands brought about deeper alienation rather than freedom, and at one point, Marx criticized Adam Smith’s view that workers were not better off at least at the time and on a microscopic level, as Smith privately predicted.

3.2. Technology Dependence and Cognitive Limitations

Han Bingzhe believes that the smartphone is the sacred relic of the digital age [2] (p. 25), and he is influenced by Foucault’s discipline theory that the advent of the digital age could restrict people’s freedom to the greatest extent, and likens social media to a digital panopticon [2] (p. 18), which means that those who master the core technology have the power to control others. When people rely on technology, those who master technology are equivalent to mastering core power, and it is difficult for people to break through their cognitive limitations. He also believes that capital, numbers, and power have been firmly combined, and have changed from a “superficial tame mole model” to a “flexible and omnipresent snake model” that monitors our lives in all directions [2] (p. 34).

3.3. Efficiency and Loss of Life

Debord’s “Landscape Society”, Bozeman’s “Entertainment Society”, and Baudrillard’s “Consumer Society” published successively after the, highlight the theme of technology and capital collusion, which seem to give people a warning of the loss of life, as if the development of intelligent technology is stealing our lives. This is not alarmism, in fact, the ways in which labor, communication and entertainment are achieved almost overlap today: people receive important documents, check in, and issue notifications on smart devices; they send various messages on smart devices for daily communication; and they post moments, watch videos, play games, and more on their smart devices. The invention of technology has focused all of our attention on smart devices. When people use their phones for a whole day, they cannot tell whether they are in the realm of labor or entertainment. In the context of the rapid development of intelligent technology, the logic of capital has completely penetrated into the various fields of human activities, and people are becoming more and more empty in the wave of various videos and pictures, but due to the intersection of entertainment and labor, they cannot get rid of this emptiness. People lose their leisure time in this non-stop labor and consumption; in this wave of intelligent technology, people feel the nothingness of life, feel the rush of life, feel anxiety, or feel loneliness. Everyone seems to live in a huge stage: they entertain themselves, besiege themselves, and doubt themselves.

Ultimately, this is a problem of social development and not technological development, but AI as a technology is not to blame. “When artificial intelligence is not yet able to resist the integration of capital logic, it is manifested in the intensification of alienation, and when it reveals the possibility of abandoning capital logic, it is a force for change” [3]. Driven by the logic of capital, intelligent technology has indeed amplified human nature, so that people have shown too many dark sides of “self” on the stage of society, which not only creates spiritual and psychological abnormalities for some people, but also creates behavioral and moral aberrations for others. How to free ourselves from this stage through the development of intelligent technology, and how to build positive ethical value goals in the wave of intelligent technology, is what we will carefully explore next.