A Re-examination of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value in the Context of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a key driving force leading the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and is profoundly changing people’s modes of production, life, and learning. AI can create material wealth for humanity, avoid heavy physical labour, enhance social welfare, and raise living standards. At the same time, however, the development of AI also brings negative effects such as some people becoming overly dependent on AI, preferring idleness to labour, and neglecting labour. The current emergence of “unmanned factories” and “unmanned supermarkets” has also led to concerns about employment for some people. Against the backdrop of the Party Central Committee and the State Council requiring the enhancement of the professional level of labour education, how to correctly understand the labour theory of value and the relationship between labour and happiness under the development of AI is a beneficial guarantee for advocating the spirit of labour creation and active struggle in the New Era.

人工智能是引领新一轮科技革命和产业变革的重要驱动力，正深刻改变着人们的生产、生活、学习方式。人工智能可以为人类创造物质财富，避免繁重体力劳动、增进社会福利、提高生活水平，但同时，人工智能的发展也带来一部分人过于依赖人工智能、好逸恶劳、疏于劳动等负面效应，当前出现的“无人工厂”“无人超市”也导致一部分人对就业的担忧。在党中央、国务院要求提高劳动教育专业化水平的大背景下，如何正确理解人工智能发展下劳动价值论以及劳动与幸福的关系，是新时代倡导劳动创造精神、积极奋斗的有益保障。

I. Has the conclusion that labour creates value changed in the context of artificial intelligence?

一、人工智能背景下劳动创造价值的结论改变了吗?

Since the 21st century, the further advancement of the reform of China’s socialist market economy system has greatly stimulated the enthusiasm and initiative of individual production. People have also actively developed new technologies and new energy sources, and science and technology have been increasingly applied to various fields of production, achieving rapid development. Science and technology have increasingly become an important factor of production, developing from an initial acceleration rate to a multiplicative rate and then to an exponential rate. The application of science and technology has led to rapid growth in the total economic output, and R&D, innovation, and management have increasingly become important links in production, giving rise to new forms of labour such as R&D labour and management labour. AI technology has undoubtedly played a leading role in this round of scientific and technological revolution. On 31 October 2018, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held its ninth collective study on the current state and trends of AI development. Xi Jinping, when presiding over the study, emphasised that AI is an important driving force of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, a strategic technology leading this round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and has a “lead goose” effect with strong spillover and driving capabilities. [1]1 The “lead goose” (头雁) effect refers to the leading and driving role of a frontrunner, analogous to the lead goose in a flock that guides and influences the direction and pace of the group. Amid the vigorous development of AI, some bourgeois economists have begun to question the scientific validity of Marx’s labour theory of value. They argue that some non-labour factors, such as land, capital, labour, and machinery, can also participate in value creation. The “factor theory of value” has thus made a reappearance on the stage. This is in fact the “utility” theory of value touted by some bourgeois scholars. Their intention is clear: by negating Marx’s labour theory of value, they seek to undermine Marx’s theory of surplus value and the entire theoretical edifice of Marxism. Faced with this challenge, we must currently address certain theoretical issues arising from practice concerning the labour theory of value in the context of contemporary Chinese AI development: first, whether labour creates value under AI and how it creates value; second, how labour creates happiness under AI.

21世纪以来，我国社会主义市场经济体制改革的进一步推进，极大地激发了个体生产的积极性和主动性。人们也积极研发新技术、新能源，科学技术被日益运用到各个生产领域，取得了突飞猛进的发展。科学技术日益成为重要的生产要素，由最初的加速度，发展到乘积速度、n次方速度。科学技术的应用使经济总量快速增长，研发、创新、管理等日益成为重要的生产环节，出现了研发劳动、管理劳动等新的劳动形态，而人工智能技术无疑在这一轮科技革命中起了引领作用。2018年10月31日，中共中央政治局就人工智能发展现状和趋势举行第九次集体学习，习近平在主持学习时强调，人工智能是新一轮科技革命和产业变革的重要驱动力量，是引领这一轮科技革命和产业变革的战略性技术，具有溢出带动性很强的“头雁”效应。在人工智能如火如荼发展的同时，一些资产阶级经济学家开始质疑马克思劳动价值论的科学性，他们认为一些非劳动性要素如土地、资本、劳动、机器等也可以参与价值创造，“要素价值论”又重新粉墨登场，这实际上是一些资产阶级学者所标榜的“效用”价值理论。他们的意图是明确的，试图通过否定马克思劳动价值论，来瓦解马克思主义的剩余价值论和马克思主义的理论大厦。面对这一挑战，当前我们应解决当代中国人工智能发展背景下劳动价值论来自实践的有关理论问题：一是人工智能背景下劳动是否创造价值，如何创造价值；二是人工智能背景下劳动如何创造幸福。

The status and role of Marx’s labour theory of value within Marx’s entire theoretical system need no elaboration. To negate Marx’s labour theory of value means to negate the foundation of classical Marxist theory. So, can AI completely replace human labour? Will human labour become dispensable and insignificant with the development of AI? This actually involves the resolution of two core issues: first, “what is the essence of the human being?” The understanding of the essence of the human being has gone through a long process, but it is now generally accepted that Marx’s view is correct: “the essence of the human being is not an abstraction inherent in each single individual, but in its reality it is the ensemble of social relations.” [2]2 This is a quotation from Marx’s “Theses on Feuerbach” (1845). This indicates the social nature of the human being—that humans cannot exist in isolation from society—and also that humans cannot exist apart from labour. Second, “what is artificial intelligence?” This question is mainly explained from the following aspects.

马克思劳动价值论在马克思整个理论体系中的地位和作用自不待言，对马克思劳动价值论的否定则意味着对经典马克思主义理论根基的否定。那么，人工智能能不能完全代替人类劳动，人类劳动会不会随着人工智能的发展变得可有可无、无足轻重?这实际上关涉两个核心问题的解决：一是“人的本质是什么”。对于人的本质理解经历了一个漫长的过程，但是，大家现在已经普遍接受马克思的观点，“人的本质不是单个人所固有的抽象物，在其现实性上，它是一切社会关系的总和”。这说明了人的社会性，人不能脱离社会而单独存在，也说明了人不能离开劳动而存在。二是“什么是人工智能”。对于这个问题，主要从以下几个方面来说明。

First, we must recognise that AI, as a result of scientific and technological innovation in the information age, is merely a part of emerging information technology. Although some forms of AI are gradually replacing some physical labour or simple labour—such as various sweeping robots or dishwashing robots—they are still a part of the productive forces, a category of productive forces containing high technological content. Marx pointed out: “The simple elements of the labour process are: purposeful activity or labour itself, the object of labour, and the instruments of labour.” [3]3 This is a quotation from Marx’s *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 7, Section 1. Academia later summarised Marx’s discussion of the labourer, the instruments of labour, and the object of labour as the “three elements” of the productive forces. These are the substantive elements (hardware composition) of the productive forces, i.e., the basic elements common to the productive forces of all epochs. In addition, there are science and technology, scientific management, and the enthusiasm and initiative for labour, which are called the non-substantive elements (software composition) of the productive forces. As a form of science and technology, AI is also a software component of the productive forces. It can be said that, compared with traditional conventional labour, the labour system of AI is more complex and requires multi-party collaboration. Therefore, the enormous role of AI in the development of the productive forces is manifested not only in its penetrating influence on the three elements of the productive forces but also in its promotion of the optimisation of the productive forces’ structure and the exertion of their systemic functions. It is the fundamental driving force for optimising the industrial structure. Only when the substantive and non-substantive elements of the productive forces are organically combined into an integrated system can they become real productive forces; only under the best structural conditions can they exert the best systemic functions. The development of systems science, management science, and computer technology all play a huge role in modern management, greatly optimising the production process and significantly raising labour productivity. Therefore, the emergence of AI is not a challenge to the dominant position of human labour but a transcendence and liberation of human labour. “The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill gives you society with the industrial capitalist.” [4]4 This is a quotation from Marx’s *The Poverty of Philosophy* (1847). As a penetrating scientific and technological factor, AI permeates the instruments of labour, leading to the intelligent transformation and enhancement of the instruments of labour, producing increasingly advanced intelligent instruments of labour that affect the state of production. The penetration of intelligent factors into each element of the productive forces and the resulting changes in interpersonal relations cause the process by which labour creates value to exhibit new characteristics. However, this does not change the fact that labour creates value. AI replacing human labour is a process of the unfolding of the essence of the human being, an extended form of human labour, and does not alter the labour theory of value.

首先，我们要意识到，人工智能作为信息时代科学技术创新的结果，只不过是新兴信息技术的一部分。虽然部分人工智能正在逐步替代部分体力劳动或者简单劳动，如各种扫地机器人或者洗碗机器人，但它们依然是生产力的一部分，是包含高科技含量的生产力范畴。马克思指出：“劳动过程的简单要素是：有目的的活动或劳动本身，劳动对象和劳动资料。”学术界把马克思关于劳动者、劳动资料和劳动对象的这一论述后来概括为生产力的“三要素”，这是生产力的实体性要素(硬件构成)，即它们是一切时代的生产力所共有的基本要素。除此以外，还有科学技术、科学管理、劳动的热情和积极性，被称为生产力的非实体性要素(软件构成)，人工智能作为一种科学技术，也是生产力的软件构成。可以说，人工智能相对于传统常规劳动，其劳动系统更为复杂，需要多方的协作，因而，人工智能对生产力发展的巨大作用，不仅表现在它对生产力三要素的渗透性影响，而且还表现在它促进生产力结构的优化和系统功能的发挥上，是优化产业结构的根本动力。生产力实体性要素和非实体性诸要素只有有机结合成为一个整体系统，才能成为现实的生产力，只有在最佳的结构状态下，才能发挥出最佳的系统功能。系统科学、管理科学和计算机技术等的发展，都在现代化的管理中发挥巨大的作用，极大地优化了生产过程，大大地提高了劳动生产力。因而，人工智能的出现不是对人类的劳动主宰地位的挑战，而是对人类劳动的超越和解放。“手推磨产生的是封建主的社会，蒸汽磨产生的是工业资本家的社会”。人工智能作为渗透性的科学技术因素渗透到劳动资料，会引起劳动资料的智能化改造和增强，产生愈来愈高级的、影响生产状况的智能化劳动资料。智能化因素渗透在生产力各要素中并带来人际关系的变化，使劳动创造价值的过程呈现出新的特点，但是这并没有改变劳动创造价值，人工智能代替人的劳动是人的本质展开过程，是人的劳动延展形式，并没有改变劳动价值论。

Artificial intelligence is a scientific and technological factor that can permeate the means of labor, the objects of labor, and the laborers, causing these basic elements of productive forces to undergo profound intelligent enhancement. Regarding the intelligent enhancement of the means of labor, the permeation and application of AI cause the means of labor to undergo a fundamental intelligent transformation and enhancement. Regarding the intelligent enhancement of the objects of labor, the permeation and application of AI cause the quality of the objects of labor that are deeply processed in the concrete labor process to be partially enhanced intelligently—for example, the formation of products such as smartphones and driverless cars requires the assembly of intelligent components. Regarding the intelligent enhancement of laborers, the permeation and application of AI cause the most active element of productive forces, namely the laborers, to acquire intelligent tools and intelligent thinking that can enhance their own labor skills, on the basis of their original human intelligence, by means of AI factors that have been objectified as a subject. Although AI devices attempt to simulate the functions of human brain intelligence and inject intelligent elements into the means of production, in the final analysis they are the result of the development of human intelligence, are still a material element of the instruments of labor, and remain at a certain distance from the real human brain, lacking human self-consciousness. Whether they are manual laborers or mental laborers, they all possess human intelligence that AI cannot match, and laborers know how to fully exert their species-specific abilities in productive labor. Marx wrote in *Capital*: “A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.” [5]5 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 7, Section 1. Thus it can be seen that even the worst architect, the most ordinary direct laborer as an individual, possesses human intelligence that is difficult to exhaust. One cannot underestimate the intelligence and wisdom of another part of the population simply because some laborers have been intelligently enhanced in the context of AI.

人工智能是能渗透于劳动资料、劳动对象和劳动者并引起这些生产力基本要素发生深刻智能化增强的科学技术要素。就劳动资料的智能化增强而言，人工智能的渗透和应用使得劳动资料产生根本性的智能化改造和增强；就劳动对象的智能化增强而言，人工智能的渗透和应用使得具体劳动过程中被进行深度加工的劳动对象在品质方面部分得以智能化增强，如智能手机、无人驾驶汽车等产品的形成，就需要被组装的智能化元器件；就劳动者的智能化增强而言，人工智能的渗透和应用使得生产力中最活跃的要素也就是劳动者，在原初的人类智能基础上，借助于客体主体化了的人工智能因素而获得能增强自身劳动技能的智能工具和智能化思维。虽然人工智能设备试图去模拟人脑智慧的功能，给生产资料注入智慧元素，但归根结底是人类智能的开发结果，还是劳动工具的物质要素，与真正的人脑还有一定的距离，它没有人类的自我意识能力。无论是体力劳动者还是脑力劳动者，身上都蕴含着人工智能所无法匹敌的人类智能，并且劳动者懂得在生产劳动中把他的种属能力充分发挥出来。马克思在《资本论》中曾这样写道：“蜘蛛的活动与织工的活动相似，蜜蜂建筑蜂房的本领使人间的许多建筑师感到惭愧。但是，最蹩脚的建筑师从一开始就比最灵巧的蜜蜂高明的地方，是他在用蜂蜡建筑蜂房以前，已经在自己的头脑中把它建成了。”由此可见，即便是最蹩脚的建筑师、最普通的直接劳动者个体也有难以穷尽的人类智慧。不能因为人工智能背景下一部分劳动者得到了智能化增强，就低估另一部分人的聪明和智慧。

Secondly, new factors of production such as technology, knowledge, and information cannot directly create value, but these factors can be materialized onto laborers to create value. AI cannot exist independently of human labor. On the surface, with the advent of the AI era, many worker robots have appeared, and robots replace human labor to produce value, seemingly allowing humans to create value without labor. In reality, however, this is not the case: AI does not create value. Behind the unmanned factories and robots, it is still human engineers who program, debug AI models, and perform labor. AI is merely a permeating factor that penetrates the concrete production process, combines with the basic elements of productive forces, and is thereby transformed into actual productive forces. Therefore, the emergence of AI will not render the laboring class superfluous, nor can it spontaneously dissolve the capitalist system of wage labor. The purpose for which AI is created by humans is precisely to replace humans in completing certain tasks that humans themselves cannot accomplish, or to lighten the burden of human labor, or to increase the efficiency of labor. Consequently, the basic elements of productive forces—the means of labor, the objects of labor, and the laborers—will achieve intelligent enhancement with the rise of AI, reducing labor intensity while increasing labor efficiency. In the near future, the intelligent enhancement of the elements of productive forces will inevitably become the technological foundation with a new foundational status; this is the primary manifestation of the new changes in contemporary productive forces under the rise of AI. Although the role of AI is significant, it is still only in its infancy, causing changes only in some sectors of production. Yet, because as a new thing it possesses a new material structure and function, and adapts to the changed economic environment and conditions, it ultimately has a powerful vitality that conforms to the forward-moving, upward-moving movement and developmental direction of social productive forces. If the capitalist large-scale industry of the 19th century “had to take possession of its characteristic means of production, the machine itself, and to produce machines by means of machines,” [6]6 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 15, Section 1. then the economic development of the 21st century must take possession of the intelligent means of production that correspond to the era of intelligence.

其次，科技、知识、信息等新的生产要素并不能直接创造价值，但是这些要素可以物化到劳动者身上创造价值。人工智能并不能脱离人工劳动而单独存在。表面上看，随着人工智能时代的来临，出现了许多工人机器人，机器人代替人类劳动生产价值，看似人类不需要劳动就能创造价值，实则不然，人工智能并不创造价值，在无人工厂、机器人的背后，还是人类工程师进行编程，调试AI模型，进行劳动。人工智能只不过是渗透到具体生产过程并与生产力基本要素相结合而转化为现实生产力的渗透性要素。因而，人工智能的出现不会使劳动阶级成为多余阶级，也不能自发消解资本主义雇佣劳动制度。人工智能被人类创造的目的就是要替代人类完成某些人类自己无法完成的事情，或者是为了减轻人的劳动负担，抑或是为了提高劳动的效率，因而劳动资料、劳动对象、劳动者等生产力基本要素将随着人工智能的崛起实现智能化增强，减小了劳动强度，却提高了劳动效率。在不久的将来，生产力要素的智能化增强必将成为具有新奠基性地位的技术基础，这是人工智能崛起下当代生产力发生新变化的首要表现。尽管人工智能的作用很大，但目前还只是端倪初现，只是引起部分生产部门的变革，但因其作为新生事物具备新的物质结构和功能，适应已经变化了的经济环境和条件，终究具有合乎社会生产力前进上升运动与发展方向的强大生命力。如果说19世纪的资本主义大工业“必须掌握它特有的生产资料，即机器本身，以便用机器来生产机器”，那么21世纪的经济发展则必须掌握与智能化时代相适应的智能化生产资料。

In summary, the mechanical, rigid, heavy, repetitive, and monotonous labor that AI replaces for humans substantially enhances human creative ability, and this process fully mobilizes human labor capacity. The will and motivation of human labor are borne by the intelligent tool system and extended through it. On the surface, AI seems to be a “detached” and “independent” subject of labor, but in essence, for the foreseeable future, it cannot replace natural persons who possess independence, purpose, and will. This is because the activity of AI is controlled through pre-programmed designs by humans. Therefore, “labor” under AI has not changed the essence of human labor; it is merely a further extension of human labor power. For example, we can amplify our voice by wearing a microphone, or replace a shovel with an excavator to enhance digging ability. This is a process in which human labor capacity is extended beyond the human body through digital, networked, and intelligent technological systems, and is the concentrated application and embodiment of the fruits of complex human labor. In a commodity economy, the essence of AI remains the objectification of human activity, the externalization of labor, and a new labor product manufactured by workers.

综上，人工智能代替人类所进行的机械、呆板、繁重、重复、枯燥的劳动实质大大提高了人类的创造能力，这个过程充分调动了人类劳动能力。人类劳动的意志和动机被智能工具系统承载，并通过智能工具系统进行延展。人工智能表面上好像是“脱离”人的“独立”的劳动主体，但实质上，在可以预见的未来，是不可能代替具有独立性、目的性和意志性的自然人的，因为人工智能的活动是通过人预先的程序设计来实现对人工智能的控制的，所以人工智能下的“劳动”并没有改变人类劳动的本质，只不过是人类劳动力的进一步延展。比如，我们可以通过佩戴扩音器提高我们的声音，通过挖掘机代替铁锹来提高挖掘能力，这是人类劳动能力通过数字化、网络化、智能化技术系统拓展至人的身体之外的过程，是人的复杂劳动成果的集中应用和体现。在商品经济中，人工智能本质仍然是人类的活动对象化、劳动的外化，是工人制造的一种新的劳动产品。

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the view that labor creates value has not changed in the context of AI. The so-called view that AI completely replaces human labor is not only erroneous but also ulterior. Marx’s labor theory of value is a transcendence and development of the traditional value theory of classical political economy, is the theoretical foundation of Marx’s “two great discoveries,” [7]7 The “two great discoveries” refer to Marx’s materialist conception of history and his theory of surplus value. and possesses powerful explanatory power. The view that “human labor is the sole source of value creation” has not changed. AI itself does not create value; it is merely a further extension of the human essence.

通过上述分析可知，人工智能背景下劳动创造价值的观点仍然没有改变。所谓人工智能完全代替人类劳动的观点，这种观点不仅是错误的，也是别有用心的。马克思的劳动价值论是对古典政治经济学传统价值论的超越与发展，是马克思的“两大发现”的理论基础，具有强大的解释力，“人类的劳动是创造价值的唯一源泉”这个观点是没有变的，人工智能本身是不创造价值的，它只是人的本质的进一步延展。

II. Different Outcomes of Labor Creating Value and Labor Creating Happiness under Different Social Systems in the Context of AI

二、人工智能背景下不同社会制度在劳动创造价值、劳动创造幸福上的不同结果

(i) AI Cannot Spontaneously Dissolve Capitalism’s Collapse, but Instead Accelerates It

(一)人工智能不能自发消解资本主义崩溃，反而加速资本主义崩溃

Under the capitalist mode of production, because capitalists believe in the logic of capital and regard the pursuit of capital and profit as the highest value pursuit, they push the negative torment and enslavement of labor to the extreme, causing a separation between labor and happiness. Marx pointed out: “Labor produces wonderful things for the rich, but for the worker it produces destitution. It produces palaces, but for the worker it produces hovels. It produces beauty, but for the worker it produces deformity.” [8]8 Karl Marx, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, “Estranged Labour.” Lenin also discussed this in *The Poverty of the Working Class in Capitalist Society*: “The wealth of capitalist society grows at an incredible speed, while at the same time the masses of workers become increasingly impoverished.” [9]9 V. I. Lenin, *The Poverty of the Working Class in Capitalist Society* (1912). This is because “the share of the workers in the rapidly growing wealth of capitalist society becomes ever smaller, for the wealth of the millionaires increases ever more rapidly.” [10]10 Ibid. This phenomenon is the result of the alienation of labor in capitalist countries; the more AI technology develops, the more acutely workers feel it. “Labor has a dual character: on the one hand, it actively affirms the species-essence of humans; on the other hand, it passively possesses torment and enslavement. The development of human society essentially progresses through the contradictory movement of this dual character of labor.” [11]11 This is a paraphrase of Marx’s concept of the dual character of labor, as developed in his early writings and in *Capital*.

在资本主义生产方式下，因为资本家信奉资本逻辑，把追逐资本、追逐利润当作最高的价值追求，因而把劳动的消极折磨和奴役性发挥到极致，造成了劳动与幸福的分离。马克思指出：“劳动为富人生产了奇迹般的东西，但是为工人生产了赤贫。劳动生产了宫殿，但是给工人生产了棚舍。劳动生产了美，但是使工人变成畸形。”列宁在《资本主义社会的贫困化》中也有相关的论述，“资本主义社会的财富以难于置信的速度增长着，与此同时工人群众却日益贫困化”。这是因为，“工人在财富迅速增长的资本主义社会中的比重愈来愈小，因为百万富翁的财富增加得愈来愈快了”。这种现象就是劳动在资本主义国家被异化的结果，人工智能技术越发展，工人的感受越明显。“劳动具有二重性，一方面它积极地确证人的类本质，另一方面它又消极地具有折磨性和奴役性。人类社会的发展本质上就是在劳动二重性的矛盾运动中得以进步的。”

Therefore, bourgeois economists repeatedly resist and question Marx’s labor theory of value precisely because Marx exposed the fact that capitalists in capitalist society appropriate the labor of workers without compensation, revealing the exploitative and enslaving nature of labor. In capitalist society, the laborer “exists not as a human being, but only as a worker,” [12]12 Karl Marx, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, “Estranged Labour.” because the laborer works under the compulsion of the capitalist, not willingly. The more products the laborer produces, the greater the profit the capitalist extracts, and the lower the wages the worker receives. Not only are they alienated from happiness and mired in poverty, but they also live in misery. Bourgeois economists repeatedly deny the labor theory of value; in reality, this is a defense of capitalist exploitation and oppression, providing an excuse to beautify the capitalist system.

因而，资产阶级经济学家一再抵制与质疑马克思劳动价值论，在于马克思揭露了资本主义社会资本家对工人的劳动进行无偿占有的事实，揭示了劳动的剥削性和奴役性。在资本主义社会劳动者“不是作为人，而是作为工人才得以存在”，因为劳动者是在资本家的强迫下劳动，并不是心甘情愿地劳动，劳动者生产的产品越多，资本家赚取的利润越大，工人获得的工资反而越低，不但疏离幸福、陷入贫困，而且生活痛苦。资产阶级经济学家一再否定劳动价值论，实际上是为资本主义剥削和压迫辩护，为美化资本主义制度提供借口。

Some believe that the development of artificial intelligence can overcome negative labour and enslaved labour, thereby saving capitalism. This is not the case. The development of artificial intelligence is an important indicator of the development of productive forces. In capitalist society, it is essentially merely a development of the means of production, fundamentally no different from the historical development of the steam engine or the internal combustion engine. Artificial intelligence is, in essence, the inevitable result of the spread of the logic of capital. Its direct impact is to raise labour productivity, thereby increasing the organic composition of capital; the more intelligent technology develops, the more the average rate of profit declines. This reduces the number of workers’ jobs, but it does not cause enslaved labour to disappear; it merely reduces direct, overt exploitation—indeed, it may even make enslaved labour a luxury. In modern society, those who lose their jobs may survive on relief, but people who have lost their labour are themselves alienated people, incomplete people. Whether labour is negative or enslaved is not determined by the degree of hardship of the labour, but by whether the fruits of labour are stolen by the capitalist.

有人认为，人工智能的发展能够克服消极劳动、奴役劳动，这样就能解救资本主义。事实并非如此，人工智能的发展是生产力发展的重要标志，在资本主义社会本质上只是生产资料的发展，与历史上蒸汽机、内燃机的发展其实并无本质区别。人工智能实质上是资本逻辑蔓延的必然结果，其发展带来的直接影响是劳动生产率的提高，从而提高资本有机构成；智能技术越发展，平均利润率越减少。这样工人的劳动岗位减少，但这并不会使得奴役劳动消失，只是让直接的显性的剥削减少——甚至使得被奴役的劳动也成为一种奢求——也许在现代社会失去劳动机会的人可以依靠救济维生，但失去劳动的人本身就是异化的人，是不完整的人。劳动的消极与否、被奴役与否，并不是由劳动的辛苦程度决定，而是由劳动成果是否为资本家窃取所决定的。

In capitalist society, those who cannot compete with artificial intelligence have already lost the opportunity to develop themselves and will be completely reduced to reproductive tools for maintaining the species. Advanced artificial intelligence in capitalist society will only accelerate the polarisation between rich and poor, turning more exploiters into the exploited, and turning those who once relied on selling their labour power to sustain their lives into complete tools, complete things, no longer able to win even a shred of dignified life for themselves. For example, “The Negro is a Negro. He becomes a slave only in certain relations. A cotton-spinning jenny is a machine for spinning cotton. It becomes capital only in certain relations.” [13]13 Karl Marx, “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret Thereof,” in *Capital*, vol. 1, ch. 1, sec. 4. This shows that the fate of Black people differs under different social systems. Because in capitalist society, the capitalist does not treat people as people, but as things. Consequently, artificial intelligence will inevitably be used on a large scale in capitalist society, which will necessarily lead to a rise in the organic composition of capital. Capitalists use artificial intelligence to vigorously produce their products, while workers may be eliminated or marginalised by machines. Because workers are limited by their physical capacity and cannot labour endlessly. On one side, there is frenzied production using artificial intelligence technology; on the other, workers are eliminated. This inevitably leads to more and more products being produced, while workers’ wages decrease and they cannot consume, resulting in 100 percent consumption exhaustion on one side and 100 percent overproduction on the other. Thus, in capitalist society, although the development of artificial intelligence helps raise labour productivity and reduce enslaved labour, more and more production workers are pushed out of the production process by intelligent production. Most small capitalists see the surplus value they obtain reduced because of the development of artificial intelligence technology, while the true capitalists ultimately obtain extra surplus value by being the first to use new technology. The development of artificial intelligence in capitalist society inevitably leads to large enterprises swallowing up small ones, ultimately making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Therefore, the development of artificial intelligence in capitalist society cannot overcome the systemic defects of capitalism itself or promote people’s free and comprehensive development; on the contrary, it will accelerate the collapse of capitalism. Because capitalists adhere to the logic of capital, they will inevitably use every means to adopt new technology to increase relative surplus value for the sake of profit—this is their nature. Hence, they will inevitably use artificial intelligence frantically; this is what Luxemburg called an inescapable vicious circle of capital. [14]14 A reference to Rosa Luxemburg’s argument in *The Accumulation of Capital* (1913) that capitalism faces an inherent contradiction between the drive to expand production and the limits of effective demand, leading to crises. Consequently, the use of artificial intelligence can to some extent relieve overwork, but it is not equivalent to saving capitalism itself.

在资本主义社会中，竞争不过人工智能的人已失去发展自身的机会，将彻底沦为维持物种延续的生育工具。发达的人工智能在资本主义社会只会加速贫富分化，使更多剥削者沦为被剥削者，使曾经依靠出卖劳动力维持生活的被剥削者更沦为彻底的工具、彻底的物，再不能为自己争得一丝有尊严的生活。例如，“黑人就是黑人。只有在一定的关系下，他才成为奴隶。纺纱机是纺棉花的机器。只有在一定的关系下，它才成为资本”。这说明，黑人在不同的社会制度下会存在不同的命运。因为在资本主义社会，资本家不把人当作人，而是当作物，那么，人工智能在资本主义社会也必然会大肆使用，这样必然会导致资本有机构成提高，资本家利用人工智能来大力生产他们的产品，工人可能被机器淘汰或者边缘化。因为工人受体能的限制，不能无休止地劳动。一面是利用人工智能技术疯狂地生产，一面是工人被淘汰出局。最终必然导致生产的产品越来越多，而工人工资减少，无法消费，从而造成百分之百的消费枯竭，另一边是百分之百的生产过剩。因而，在资本主义社会，人工智能的发展虽然有助于提高劳动生产率，减少奴役劳动，但是越来越多的生产工人却被智能化生产排挤出生产过程，大多数小资本家因为人工智能技术的发展所获得的剩余价值减少，而真正的资本家最终会因为率先使用新技术获得超额剩余价值，资本主义社会人工智能的发展必然会导致大企业兼并小企业，最终富者愈富、穷者愈穷。因此，资本主义社会人工智能的发展不仅不能克服资本主义自身的制度性缺陷，促使人的自由全面发展，反而会加速资本主义崩溃。因为资本家奉行资本逻辑，必然会为了利润千方百计地使用新技术，增加相对剩余价值，这是他们的本性，因而他们必然又会拼命使用人工智能，这就是卢森堡说的资本无法逃脱的一个怪圈。因而，人工智能的使用一定程度上能解救过度劳动却不等同于解救资本主义本身。

(II) The socialist system can ensure the rational use of artificial intelligence

(二)社会主义制度能够保证人工智能的合理使用

First, from the perspective of artificial intelligence itself, its development is the result of our maximally stimulating the potential of science and technology, and also the result of scientific progress. As a progressive and revolutionary force, science should from the very beginning receive people’s attention. We should not regard scientific discoveries as a flood of monsters, but should feel heartfelt joy. Marx was like this. Engels, in his “Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx,” pointed out: “In Marx’s view, science is a revolutionary force that plays a driving role in history. Every new discovery in any theoretical science—even if its practical application could not yet be foreseen at all—filled Marx with heartfelt joy, and when he saw a discovery that had an immediately revolutionary effect on industry and on historical development in general, his joy was extraordinary.” [15]15 Friedrich Engels, “Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx,” March 17, 1883. Therefore, towards artificial intelligence, which represents advanced science and technology, our attitude should undoubtedly be positive and optimistic. But how exactly should artificial intelligence be used? How can artificial intelligence and labour relations develop harmoniously? Can the socialist system guarantee the rational use of artificial intelligence? These are theoretical and practical issues we must consider.

首先，从人工智能本身来看，人工智能的发展是我们最大限度地激发科学技术潜能，也是科学发展的结果。作为一种进步的、革命的力量，科学从一开始就应该得到人们的重视，对科学的发现我们不能视为洪水猛兽，而是要感到衷心喜悦。马克思就是如此。恩格斯《在马克思墓前的讲话》一文中指出：“在马克思看来，科学是一种在历史上起推动作用的、革命的力量。任何一门理论科学中的每一个新发现——它的实际应用也许还根本无法预见——都使马克思感到衷心喜悦，而当他看到那种对工业、对一般历史发展立即产生革命性影响的发现的时候，他的喜悦就非同寻常了。”因而，对于代表着先进科学技术的人工智能，毫无疑问，我们的态度应该是积极的、乐观的。但是，到底如何使用人工智能?如何使人工智能与劳动关系和谐发展?社会主义制度能不能保障人工智能的合理使用?这些是我们应该思考的理论和实践问题。

People, as the creators and inventors of science and technology, are both the subjects who enjoy the fruits of scientific and technological achievements and the objects who suffer the negative effects of technology. But in any case, the development of artificial intelligence cannot be premised on the destruction of most people’s nature or on the harm and deprivation of people’s freedom. In the process of its development, it should aim to liberate labour and realise the happiness of labour. It should be fully consistent with people’s free and comprehensive development, not only in theory but also in reality. The great scientist Einstein once said: “Science is a powerful tool. How it is used, whether it brings happiness or disaster to humanity, depends entirely on people themselves, not on the tool. A knife is useful in human life, but it can also be used to kill people.” [16]16 Albert Einstein, “Why Socialism?” (1949), *Monthly Review*, vol. 1, no. 1 (May 1949). This means that artificial intelligence technology, as a human tool, has a dual nature: it can bring positive effects to human society and its future development, thereby benefiting humanity, or it can, due to inappropriate application, bring negative effects or even great disaster. But this is only the result of the abuse or misuse of artificial intelligence technology, not the fault of artificial intelligence itself. Since the birth of modern science, although from time to time people have cursed science as the embodiment of the devil and the enemy of progress, science has nevertheless, with its brilliant achievements, won the affirmation of its value from the majority of people. Artificial intelligence is both the result of the practice of people as subjects of practice and the object on which people further rely for practice. Therefore, people as subjects of practice should and must fully exert their subjective initiative in the face of the dual effects of artificial intelligence technology, grasp the dialectical relationship between subjective initiative and objective laws, and enable artificial intelligence, as an object of practice, to be used by us to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, for our own purposes. As Einstein said, “It is not enough to know how to apply science and technology. Concern for people themselves should always be the main goal of all technological endeavours; concern for how to organise people’s labour and the distribution of products—these as yet unresolved major problems—in order to ensure that the fruits of our scientific thinking benefit humanity and do not cause harm.” [17]17 Paraphrase of Einstein’s statement in “The World as I See It” (1934). The highest goal of artificial intelligence technology should be to realise people’s basic values, to serve people’s survival and perfection. This requires that, on the one hand, we treat artificial intelligence technology with caution, so as to better bring into play its good functions and benefit humanity; on the other hand, it requires that artificial intelligence technology be made subordinate to the command of the human spirit. The socialist system plays a leading and driving role in the development of artificial intelligence, as well as a constraining and regulating role, prompting people to be highly vigilant, to foresee risks in its application, and to do a good job of risk prevention, thereby ensuring that artificial intelligence technology advances on a rational track, achieving an organic unity between artificial intelligence and human labour, better making forward-looking arrangements in areas such as employment, education, and social security, and fully relying on its technological progress to improve development. “The socialist system opens up extremely broad prospects for the application and development of science and technology, enabling science and technology to play a fuller role in developing productive forces and promoting social progress.” [18]18 This sentence is a standard formulation in Chinese Marxist discourse, often attributed to Deng Xiaoping or official Party documents on the role of socialism in guiding science and technology.

作为科学技术的创造者和发明者的人，既是科技成果的享用者的主体，同时又是科技负面效应的受害者的客体。但无论如何，人工智能的发展不能以对大多数人的本性的摧残和对人的自由的损害、剥夺为前提，它在发展的过程中应以解放劳动、实现劳动幸福为目的，它不仅在理论上而且应该在现实中同人的自由全面发展完全相一致。科学巨匠爱因斯坦曾经说过：“科学是一种强有力的工具。怎样用它，究竟是给人类带来幸福还是带来灾难，全取决于人自己，而不取决于工具。刀子在人类生活上是有用的，但它也能用来杀人。”这就是说，人工智能技术作为人类的工具，具有两重性：它既可以给人类社会及其未来发展带来积极的作用，从而造福于人类，也可能因不恰当的应用而带来负面影响甚至是极大的灾难。但这只是人工智能技术被滥用，或被误用所致，并非人工智能本身之过。自近代科学诞生以来，尽管不时有人诅咒科学是恶魔的化身和进步的敌人，但科学毕竟以其辉煌的成就赢得了多数人对它的价值的首肯。人工智能既是作为实践主体的人实践的结果，也是人进一步实践所依靠的对象，因而，作为实践主体的人应当也必须在人工智能技术的双重效应面前充分发挥主观能动性，把握主观能动性与客观规律性的辩证关系，使人工智能这个实践客体能被我们扬长避短，为我所用。正如爱因斯坦所说的，我们“只懂得应用科技本身是不够的。关心人的本身，应当始终成为一切技术上奋斗的主要目标；关心怎样组织人的劳动和产品分配这样一些尚未解决的重大问题，用以保证我们的科学思想的成果会造福于人类，而不至于造成祸害”。人工智能技术的最高目标应当是实现人的基本价值，应当是为了人的生存和完善。这就要求我们一方面要慎重对待人工智能技术，从而更好地发挥它的善的功能，为人类造福；另一方面需要使人工智能技术服从于人类精神的指挥，而社会主义制度对人工智能的发展有引领和驱动作用，也有约束和规制作用，促使人们高度警醒，预见其应用中的风险，做好风险防范工作，从而保障人工智能技术在合理的轨道上前进，使人工智能与人类劳动实现有机统一，更好地在就业、教育、社会保障等领域超前布局，充分依靠其技术进步改善发展。“社会主义制度为科学技术的运用和发展，开辟了极其广阔的前景，使科学技术对发展生产力和推动社会进步作用得到更充分的发挥。”

Secondly, from the perspective of the socialist system, under the socialist system the status of labourers is equal. This guarantees the principal position of labourers and the equal social relations among people in labour, providing an institutional guarantee for labourers to realise free and conscious labour. The socialist system “will provide all people with healthy and beneficial work, provide all people with ample material life and leisure time, and provide all people with true and full freedom.” This is fundamentally different from the capitalist system, where commodities are reified, money is reified, and capital is reified, so that relations between people are replaced by relations between things, and thus human value is obscured. Replacing wage labour with social labour, restoring labour’s creation of value, and respecting the subject of labour constitute a new type of labour relations in socialist society. At the present stage, although a large non-public economy still exists in China, and wage labour will inevitably exist for a relatively long period, the economic base of capitalist production has already ceased to exist and has been thoroughly eliminated. The nature of socialist production is determined by the form of public ownership of the means of production. Under these conditions, most labour is not the exploitative labour dominated by the logic of capital under the nature of capitalist society, but rather production and labour of a socialist nature. In productive labour, socialist society upholds the principle of people first, the interests of the people above all else. This is completely different from the pursuit of profit first and the logic of capital upheld in the production of capitalist society. Although, at present, because private ownership economic components still occupy a certain proportion, wage labour still exists within a certain scope, and some private enterprise owners still lack respect for labourers, so that labour has not yet completely shed the phenomenon of alienation, we can gradually eliminate the phenomenon of labour alienation by developing the productive forces and through the guidance of the core socialist values. At present, we have already entered the New Era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The people are the masters of the country, and most labour is for the people to pursue a greater sense of gain and happiness. “A social governance system must take the people’s well-being as paramount; it must guarantee the people’s happiness; otherwise, this governance system is not reasonable. And such a theoretical explanation is based on the premise that everyone has a natural right to labour happiness. Society must guarantee everyone’s well-being, but everyone must participate in labour creation to the best of their ability.”

其次，从社会主义制度来看，在社会主义制度下，劳动者的地位是平等的，这保障了劳动者主体地位以及劳动中人与人的平等社会关系，为劳动者实现自由自觉的劳动提供了制度保障。社会主义制度“将给所有的人提供健康而有益的工作，给所有的人提供充裕的物质生活和闲暇时间，给所有的人提供真正的充分的自由”，这与资本主义制度下商品被物化、货币被物化、资本被物化，因而人与人的关系为物与物的关系所代替，从而人的价值被遮蔽是根本不同的。以社会劳动取代雇佣劳动，还原劳动创造价值和尊重劳动主体是社会主义社会的一种新型劳动关系。现阶段虽然我国还存在大量非公经济，雇佣劳动必将在我国存在较长一段时间，但是资本主义生产的经济基础已经不复存在，被彻底消除了。社会主义生产的性质是由生产资料的全民所有制形式决定的，这种条件下的大部分劳动不是资本主义社会性质下资本逻辑主导下的剥削性质的劳动，而是具有社会主义性质的生产和劳动，社会主义社会在生产劳动时奉行的是人民至上，人民利益高于一切，这与资本主义社会生产所追求的利益至上、奉行的资本逻辑是完全不同的。虽然，目前由于私有制经济成分还占用一定的比例，雇佣劳动在一定范围还存在，一些私营企业主还缺乏对劳动者的尊重，致使劳动尚未完全摆脱异化现象，但是，我们可以通过发展生产力和社会主义核心价值观的引领，逐步消除劳动异化现象。当前，我们已经进入中国特色社会主义新时代，人民是国家的主人，大部分劳动是为了人民追求更多的获得感与幸福感。“一种社会治理体系必须以人民福祉为上，必须保障人民幸福，否则这个治理体系就不是合理的。而这样的理论阐释是以假设每个人都有天然的劳动幸福权利为基础的。社会要保障每个人的福祉，但每个人必须力所能及地参与劳动创造。”

III. How Labour Creates Happiness in the Context of Artificial Intelligence

三、人工智能背景下劳动如何创造幸福

Against the backdrop of rapid scientific and technological development, the emergence of artificial intelligence has further improved labour tools, and the degree of labour liberation has further increased. Phenomena such as “unmanned supermarkets” and “driverless cars” have appeared. This has enabled humanity to begin to avoid, to a considerable extent, the torment and enslaving negative effects of heavy physical labour, gradually experiencing some convenience and efficiency in daily life. Labour is also moving from subsistence labour to dignified labour and free labour, with labour and happiness closely integrated, truly realising labour happiness. However, the development of artificial intelligence also brings some theoretical and practical problems. For example, the emergence of artificial intelligence causes labour tools and labourers to merge into one, and in certain production links the trend of “machines displacing people” inevitably appears. Rosa Luxemburg once pointed out that technological progress becomes a whip of greatly intensified labour, mercilessly lashing the muscles, brains, and blood of the proletariat, driving them towards the grave at flying speed. [19]19 Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) was a Polish-German Marxist revolutionary and theorist. The reference here is to her critique of capitalist accumulation and technological exploitation. As human labour functions are completely replaced with the development of artificial intelligence, humans feel dependent on machines in the labour process, unable to keep up with machines, and find it difficult to locate their own sense of existence and happiness. Therefore, technological pessimists regard the emergence of artificial intelligence as a flood of monstrous beasts, repeatedly exclaiming that “the wolf is coming.” [20]20 “The wolf is coming” (狼来了) is a Chinese idiom from a fable about a shepherd boy who falsely cries “wolf,” so that when the wolf actually comes, no one believes him. Here it is used metaphorically to mean a repeated, alarmist warning. From the perspective of human history, every revolution or innovation in technology will inevitably see some people lose their jobs because their labour or work is replaced by new technology, having to lose their livelihoods or face the predicament of transformation. Marx pointed out that “the means of labour, when they take the form of machines, immediately become competitors of the workers themselves,” [21]21 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 15, Section 3. and that “in the labour process itself, as capital, as dead labour that dominates and sucks up living labour-power, they confront the worker.” [22]22 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 1, Chapter 15, Section 3. Although this process of transformation, in which machines replace human power and displace workers, is painful, if humanity can adapt to technological progress and undergo transformation, it will resolve and overcome problems related to heavy, low-tech work, shifting to relatively light, high-tech work. Conversely, if we cannot adapt to technological progress, we may lose our jobs. Therefore, the development of artificial intelligence requires us to take the initiative to adapt more quickly to technological progress. In the short term, the phenomenon of being eliminated because of inability to adapt to technological progress may indeed exist. For example, teachers worry that if their own lessons are not effective, they may be replaced by high-quality online courses from famous experts; taxi drivers worry that one day they will be replaced by “driverless” intelligent cars. The impact of artificial intelligence’s emergence, bringing the feeling that “the wolf is coming,” is entirely reasonable. This is also the inevitable result of every technological revolution. In the short term, we find it difficult to adapt to these changes all at once. However, in the long term, the development of artificial intelligence liberates humanity from previously heavy labour, completely freeing our hands and legs, breaking the traditional concept that “labour equals toil,” and making self-learning, self-decision-making, and automatic control possible. This enables human labour to break free from physical limitations; even those with weak physiques, as long as they master core skills, can independently complete various complex physical and mental labours. Artificial intelligence technology helps to eliminate the opposition between mental labour and physical labour, organically unifying tools, power, and intelligence. This will provide the possibility for humanity to produce enormous wealth tirelessly. Moreover, the socialist system can ensure the rational and standardised use of artificial intelligence. Therefore, rather than saying that artificial intelligence challenges humanity’s dominant position in labour, it is better to say that it brings humanity opportunities for thorough liberation, freedom, and all-round development; it is a transcendence and liberation of human labour.

在科学技术快速发展的背景下，人工智能的出现进一步改进了劳动工具，劳动解放的程度进一步提高，出现了“无人超市”“无人驾驶的汽车”等。这使人类已经开始尽量避免繁重的体力劳动所带来的折磨和奴役性的消极作用，逐步感受到一些生活中的快捷与便利，劳动也由谋生劳动走向体面劳动、自由劳动，劳动和幸福紧密融合，真正地实现劳动幸福。但人工智能的发展，也带来一些理论和实践问题。比如，人工智能的出现使劳动工具和劳动者合二为一，在某些生产环节必然会出现“机器排挤人”的趋势。罗莎·卢森堡曾经指出，技术的进步成了极大劳动强度的鞭子，无情地鞭打着无产者的肌肉、大脑和鲜血，以飞快的速度驱赶着他走向坟墓。人类的劳动功能随着人工智能的发展被彻底取代，人类在劳动过程中感觉自己依赖机器，赶不上机器，很难找到自己的存在感和幸福感，因此科学技术悲观论者把人工智能的出现看作洪水猛兽，一次次惊呼“狼来了”。从人类历史来看，技术的每一次革命或革新，一定会存在一部分人因劳动或工作被新技术取代而失业，不得不丢掉饭碗或者面临转型的困境。马克思指出，“劳动资料取得机器这种物质存在方式，要求以自然力来代替人力”，“立刻就成了工人本身的竞争者”，机器“在劳动过程本身中作为资本，作为支配和吮吸活劳动力的死劳动而同工人相对立”。虽然这种机器代替人力、排挤工人的转型过程比较痛苦，但是如果人类能够适应技术进步进行转型，将解决、克服有关繁重的、技术含量低的工作，转向相对轻松的、技术含量高的工作。反之，如果我们不能适应技术进步，则有可能会失去工作。因而，人工智能的发展要求我们要以主动的姿态更快适应技术进步。短期内，因为不能适应技术进步被淘汰的现象可能真的会存在，比如教师担心如果自己的课教学效果不好，就可能被高质量的名家网课所取代；出租车司机担心自己某一天会被“无人驾驶”的智能汽车所代替。人工智能的出现给人们带来“狼来了”的冲击完全合情合理，这也是每一次科技革命带来的必然结果。从短期来看，我们一时间难以适应这些变化，但是，从长期来看，人工智能的发展使人类从以前繁重的劳动中解放出来，彻底解放了我们的双手、双腿，打破了“劳动=劳累”的传统观念，使自我学习、自我决策、自动控制成为可能，从而使人类劳动摆脱体型限制，体型弱小者只要掌握核心技能，也能独立完成各种复杂的体力劳动和脑力劳动。人工智能技术有助于消除脑力劳动与体力劳动的对立，把工具、动力和智力三者有机统一起来，这将为人类不知疲倦地生产出巨大财富提供可能。况且，社会主义制度能够保证人工智能合理、规范地使用。因此，人工智能与其说是对人类的劳动主宰地位的挑战，倒不如说是给人类带来了彻底的解放和自由、全面发展的机会，是对人类劳动的超越和解放。

In Marx’s view, free labour is labour that overcomes alienation, truly conforms to the human essence as a “first need”, and is the highest form of labour. Marx and Engels vividly described the state of happy labour in communist society: “to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner” [23]23 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *The German Ideology* (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976), p. 47. The quotation describes the division of labour in communist society, where individuals are not confined to a single occupation., where humanity, no longer bound by labour, can finally free up time and energy to engage in what they previously wanted to do but had no opportunity to do, can fully enjoy leisure unconstrained by labour, and can freely dispose of their own time and enjoy a life of freedom. Marx pointed out that happiness is the state of satisfaction and pleasurable experience that people feel when they realise their predetermined goals and ideals through labour creation. With the emergence of artificial intelligence technology, people no longer need to engage in heavy physical and mental labour and can fully devote themselves to things they previously wanted to do but had no opportunity to do. However, happiness is not the mere embodiment of individual will; happiness is autonomous labour creation. In the process of labour, people’s self-worth can be manifested, and the basic demand for happiness can be effectively realised. As Xi Jinping said: happiness is achieved through struggle; struggle itself is a kind of happiness; only a life of struggle can be called a happy life; the New Era is an era of strivers [24]24 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 2018 Spring Festival Gathering,” 14 February 2018. This remark is often cited to promote the idea that happiness is achieved through hard work and struggle.. The outlook on happiness through struggle is in fact the outlook on happiness through labour. Hence, as soon as the outlook on happiness through struggle was put forward, it received widespread recognition from people in all sectors of society, making the concept that labour is most glorious even more deeply rooted in people’s hearts. This is the development of the Marxist outlook on happiness through labour in the New Era. Happiness is the eternal common pursuit of humanity; struggle is the source of happiness; happiness is the goal of struggle. There is a close mutually reinforcing relationship between struggle and happiness. Struggle is a practical activity carried out to satisfy certain needs or purposes of people, and its fundamental purpose is the pursuit of happiness. Entering the New Era, the public’s demand for material life has been fully satisfied, but the pursuit of a higher level of a better material and spiritual life still exists. In the future, it is necessary to continue to inspire the people’s consciousness of struggle, inject sufficient impetus into the long-term development of the nation and the country, and provide a basic guarantee for the long-term happiness of the collective. Only through struggle can people truly realise the reality and possibility of obtaining happiness. Every kind of happiness is obtained through hard labour and the sweat of hard work; hard struggle is the secret to obtaining happiness. The people need to voluntarily join the ranks of struggle, truly create value through struggle, and promote the improvement of the overall level of social value creation, thereby injecting long-term impetus into the development of the country and the people in the New Era, enabling the people to create and enjoy happiness more quickly. Humanity can rediscover the value and meaning of existence in new fields. After humanity is liberated from heavy labour, it also needs to realise the intellectualisation and automation of mental labour. The emergence of artificial intelligence technology makes possible the long-cherished dream of the complete liberation of humanity.

在马克思看来，自由劳动是克服异化、真正符合人本质的“第一需要”的劳动，是最高形态的劳动。马克思恩格斯生动地描述了共产主义社会中幸福劳动的状态，“上午打猎，下午捕鱼，傍晚从事畜牧，晚饭后从事批判”，不被劳动束缚的人类终于可以腾出时间和精力从事过去想做而没有机会做的事情，可以充分享受不受劳动束缚之后的闲暇，可以自由地支配自己的时间，享受自由自在的生活。马克思指出，幸福是人们在劳动创造中实现了自己预定的目标与理想时而产生的满足状态和愉悦体验。随着人工智能技术的出现，人们不再需要从事繁重体力和脑力劳动，可以尽情地从事自己过去想做而没机会做的事情，但是，幸福不是个人单纯意志的体现，幸福是自主性的劳动创造，在劳动的过程中，人的自我价值才能显现出来，才能够有效实现对幸福的基本诉求。正如习近平所说：幸福都是奋斗出来的，奋斗本身就是一种幸福，只有奋斗的人生才称得上是幸福的人生，新时代是奋斗者的时代。奋斗幸福观实际上就是劳动幸福观，因而，奋斗幸福观一经提出就受到社会各界人士的广泛认同，它使劳动最光荣的理念更加深入人心，这是马克思主义的劳动幸福观在新时代的发展。幸福是人类一直的共同追求，奋斗是幸福的源泉，幸福是奋斗的目标，奋斗与幸福之间有着密切的互促关系，奋斗是为了满足人们的某种需要或某种目的而进行的实践活动，其根本目的是追求幸福。进入新时代，大众对于物质生活的需求得到充分满足，但对更高水平的美好物质和精神生活的追求仍然存在，未来有必要继续激励人民群众的奋斗意识，为民族和国家长期发展注入充足动力，为集体的长久幸福做好基础保障。人们只有在奋斗中才能真正实现获得幸福的现实性和可能性。每一种幸福都是经过艰苦的劳动、付出辛勤汗水而得到的，努力奋斗是获得幸福的秘密所在，人民群众需要自主加入奋斗的行列中，真正通过奋斗来创造价值，推动社会整体价值创造水平的提升，以此为新时代国家和人民发展注入长久动力，使人民群众更快地创造并享受幸福，人类可以在新的领域重新找到存在的价值和意义。在人类从繁重的劳动中解放出来后，也需要实现脑力劳动智能化和自动化。人工智能技术的出现，让人类全面解放的长期梦想有可能得到实现。

In short, the development of artificial intelligence further confirms that labour creates value and labour creates happiness. As Xi Jinping said, happiness is achieved through struggle. However, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, among some young people today there has emerged an erroneous tendency to over-rely on the convenience and speed brought by artificial intelligence while neglecting labour and even detesting labour. The Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Labour Education in Universities, Middle Schools and Primary Schools in the New Era, issued by the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council on 20 March 2020, specifically points out that labour education should “reflect the characteristics of the times” [25]25 Central Committee of the CPC and State Council, *Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Labour Education in Universities, Middle Schools and Primary Schools in the New Era*, 20 March 2020. This document mandates the integration of labour education into the school curriculum.. Therefore, the younger generation growing up in the context of artificial intelligence should be better enabled to receive labour education and experience the happiness brought by labour. Xi Jinping clearly stated at the National Education Conference that the spirit of labour should be promoted among students, guiding them to advocate labour, respect labour, and understand the principles that labour is most glorious, labour is most noble, labour is greatest, and labour is most beautiful, so that when they grow up they can work diligently, work honestly, and work creatively [26]26 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the National Education Conference,” 10 September 2018. This speech emphasised the importance of labour education in shaping socialist builders and successors.. Labour education means “cultivating students’ socialist labour outlook, regarding labour as a glorious undertaking, loving labour, and having a conscious and positive attitude towards labour” [27]27 This is a standard definition of the goal of labour education in Chinese Marxist pedagogy, often found in official educational guidelines.. The Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Labour Education in Universities, Middle Schools and Primary Schools in the New Era points out: “Labour education is an important part of the socialist education system with Chinese characteristics, directly determining the labour spirit, labour value orientation, and labour skill level of socialist builders and successors” [28]28 Central Committee of the CPC and State Council, *Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Labour Education in Universities, Middle Schools and Primary Schools in the New Era*, 20 March 2020.. The core of labour education is to cultivate students to establish a correct labour value outlook, which is also the essential goal of labour education pursued by Marxists. Marx repeatedly emphasised that labour is glorious and labour is happy. In 1957, Zhou Enlai pointed out at the Fourth Session of the First National People’s Congress that “labour is the most glorious thing” [29]29 Zhou Enlai, “Report on the Work of the Government,” delivered at the Fourth Session of the First National People’s Congress, 26 June 1957. This statement reflects the official socialist valorisation of labour.. The capitalists who love leisure and hate labour and who reap without sowing take the sacredness of capital as their value goal, yet show great disgust and contempt for labour and the working people; they despise labour and look down on the working people. This leads them, on the one hand, to frantically exploit workers and squeeze out the surplus value of workers; on the other hand, they fabricate all kinds of lies to claim that it is they who support the workers. Socialist society advocates equal labour, basically eliminates the phenomenon of labour alienation, and establishes the concept that labour is glorious and labour is happy. Citizens of a socialist country not only experience labour happiness in labour but also gain dignity and human value through labour. The distribution principle of socialist society is distribution according to work: more work, more gain; less work, less gain; those who do not work do not eat. This is also an important manifestation of respect for labour. Xi Jinping pointed out, “Labour created the Chinese nation, forged the glorious history of the Chinese nation, and will surely create the bright future of the Chinese nation” [30]30 Xi Jinping, “Speech at a Meeting to Celebrate International Workers’ Day,” 28 April 2016. This remark underscores the historical and future role of labour in national development.. To this end, an atmosphere in which the whole society respects and loves labour should be fostered, and artificial intelligence and labour should be promoted to develop in a mutually reinforcing way.

总之，人工智能的发展，进一步确证了劳动创造价值、劳动创造幸福。正如习近平所说，幸福都是奋斗出来的。但随着人工智能技术的发展，当今部分年轻人中出现过于依赖人工智能带来的方便、快捷的感受，而忽视劳动、厌恶劳动的错误倾向。中共中央、国务院于2020年3月20日发布的《关于全面加强新时代大中小学劳动教育的意见》特别指出劳动教育要“体现时代特征”。因此，应让在人工智能背景下成长的青年一代更好地接受劳动教育，感受劳动所带来的幸福。习近平在全国教育大会上明确指出，要在学生中弘扬劳动精神，教育引导学生崇尚劳动、尊重劳动，懂得劳动最光荣、劳动最崇高、劳动最伟大、劳动最美丽的道理，长大后能够辛勤劳动、诚实劳动、创造性劳动。劳动教育，就是要“培养学生的社会主义劳动观点，将劳动看作是光荣的事业，热爱劳动，对劳动具有自觉的积极的态度”。《关于全面加强新时代大中小学劳动教育的意见》指出：“劳动教育是中国特色社会主义教育制度的重要内容，直接决定社会主义建设者和接班人的劳动精神面貌、劳动价值取向和劳动技能水平。”而劳动教育的核心就是培养学生树立正确的劳动价值观，这也是马克思主义者追求的劳动教育的本质目标。马克思一再强调劳动光荣，劳动幸福。1957年周恩来在第一次全国人民代表大会第四次会议上指出“劳动是最光荣的事情”。好逸恶劳、不劳而获的资本家以资本神圣作为价值目标，却对劳动和劳动人民表示出极大地厌恶和藐视，他们蔑视劳动，轻视劳动人民。这就造成他们一方面疯狂地剥削劳动者，榨取劳动者的剩余价值；另一方面还编造出种种谎话，说明是他们养活了劳动者。社会主义社会倡导平等劳动，基本上消除了劳动异化现象，树立了劳动光荣、劳动幸福的理念。社会主义国家的公民，在劳动中不但体会到劳动幸福，而且通过劳动获得了尊严和人的价值。社会主义社会的分配原则是按劳分配，多劳多得，少劳少得，不劳动者不得食，这也是尊重劳动的一个重要的体现。习近平指出，“劳动创造了中华民族，造就了中华民族的辉煌历史，也必将创造出中华民族的光明未来”。为此，应营造全社会都尊重劳动、热爱劳动的氛围，并促使人工智能与劳动获得相得益彰的发展。

(The author is Director of the Teaching and Research Office for Basic Principles of Marxism, School of Marxism, Shanghai Normal University; Head of the Specialisation in the History of Marxist Development; Professor and Doctoral Supervisor; Researcher at the 21st Century Marxism Research Centre, Shanghai Normal University)

（作者系上海师范大学马克思主义学院马克思主义基本原理教研室主任，马克思主义发展史专业负责人，教授、博士生导师，上海师范大学21世纪马克思主义研究中心研究员）

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