Rethinking Marx’s Critical Thought Of Modern Technology And Its Contemporary Values In The Era Of Artificial Intelligence

As early as the 19th century,Marx was keenly aware of and deeply demonstrated the importance of technology and the social problems derived from it.On the one hand,the improvement of social efficiency and the great expansion of human capabilities brought by technology have shown a potential to promote freedom.On the other hand,the capitalist mode of production accompanied by constantly updated technology has given birth to new social problems and difficulties.Marx’s technological thought can be divided into two parts: the definition of the concept of technology and the role and alienation of technology.On the basis of inheriting the Enlightenment Thought,Classical German Philosophy,Classical Political Economy and technological view of technology,Marx highlighted his basic attitude to technology in the analysis of capitalist production process: technology is the manifestation of human’s essential strength,and is also socially and historically generated.It not only has the orientation of promoting productivity and social progress,but also leads to alienation and contradictions.After Marx,many social theorists inherited his perspective of historical materialism under the background of continuous expansion of technology.However,due to the birth and expansion of AI,technology itself is undergoing qualitative changes,and its ability to change the world is not only increasing exponentially,but also trying to break the boundaries between human and machine from multiple research directions,constantly updating the response to the question of "whether machines can have the same or even higher intelligence of human beings".In the era of artificial intelligence,Marx’s pursuit of "changing the world" and the discussion of related concepts such as alienation,materialization,instrumental rationality,cultural industry by scholars are bursting with new vitality.From the perspective of technological progress in the era of artificial intelligence,intelligent technology presents the basic characteristics of digitalization,intellectualization and acceleration.The worship of technology is manifested in multiple forms,including technological governance and abstract governance,and has spawned problems such as "impersonal rationality" and "non-subjective responsibility" in the era of intelligence.By digging the real foundation of AI,we can find that the capital logic still runs through the general application of AI and the creation of surplus value,and plays an important role in the transformation of social structure.Therefore,from the perspective of historical materialism,reflecting on the real power and great potential of AI as a technology in promoting social changes,responding to questions about the extent to which it contributes to the realization of labor liberation and the ultimate goal of human liberation that Marx seeks most,and dialectically examining the emancipation of AI is the key path to display the value of Marx’s critical thought of technology beyond the limits of the times in the contemporary era.