The Confirmation of the Essence of Artificial Intelligence and Its Significance under the Materialist Conception of History

Abstract

Reflecting on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) from the perspective of Marxist philosophy and addressing the complexities of the “human-machine relationship” necessitates confirming the essence of AI. This confirmation should be grounded in the materialist conception of history, referencing Marx’s assertions about human essence to grasp AI’s unique attributes as a “human-like” entity. Marx’s exploration of human essence evolved from abstract comparisons of the “generic” differences between humans and animals to a historical understanding of the “species-specific” distinctions in human essence and further to a concrete comprehension of differences among real individuals. Drawing on Marx’s reasoning about human essence, reflections on the essence of AI must organically integrate the dual perspectives of the developmental logic of productive forces and the logic of capital. This entails grasping AI’s three core essences—as the “externalization of human knowledge and rational capacity,” an “automated tool for mental labor,” and a “human-like entity lacking perceptual capacity and practical purpose”—through its general distinctions from humans and other entities, while also situating AI within the productive relations of “real individuals” to understand its transcendence and non-transcendence. Confirming the essence of AI facilitates a dialectical view of its alienating effects and emancipatory potential. Moving beyond the ideological impasse between radical progressivist instrumental rationality and conservative romanticist value rationality, this approach promotes the practical advancement of historical human emancipation.

Keywords

materialist conception of history / human essence / artificial intelligence / modes of confirmation / contemporary significance

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Higher Education Press