From the Realm of Necessity to the Realm of Freedom: The Practical Direction of Artificial Intelligence Development

As the most representative technological achievement of the 21st century, artificial intelligence has sounded the revolutionary clarion call of the era, summoning technological change and the transformation of the times, continuously practicing in various fields, and arousing widespread social concern. Although the capitalist application of artificial intelligence has intensified the exploitation of workers by capital, giving rise to a series of social problems that plunge workers deep into the "quagmire" of the realm of necessity, where they are enslaved by things, its own contradictions make the practical direction of AI development point toward the communist realm of freedom, whose ultimate goal is "the return of man to his own human existence, i.e., to social existence." This article reveals, from a Marxist perspective, the historical inevitability of AI development promoting humanity's leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom.

作为21世纪最具代表性的科技成果，人工智能吹响了时代的革命性号角，召唤技术变革和时代变迁，在各领域不断实践，引发社会广泛关注。虽然资本主义的人工智能应用加重了资本对劳动者的剥削，带来一系列社会问题，以致劳动者深陷被物奴役的必然王国“泥潭”，但其自身的矛盾性使得人工智能发展的实践指向以“自己的合乎人性的存在即社会的存在的复归”为终极目标的共产主义自由王国。本文从马克思主义视角揭示人工智能发展促进人类从必然王国向自由王国飞跃的历史必然性。

I. The Practical Manifestations of AI Development in the Realm of Necessity

一、人工智能发展在必然王国的实践表现

The development of the productive forces of human society is a history of "constantly developing from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom" in liberating workers. However, the capitalist application of AI technology attempts to permanently bind workers within the realm of necessity, which is an "alien existence that enslaves people." Thus, under the intimidation of capitalism, labor continues to serve as a means of human subsistence, and workers are still forced to engage in "labor determined by necessity and external purposes," enslaved by capital, and AI is thereby "alienated, externalized, and estranged" into an instrument of exploitation serving the logic of capital.

人类社会生产力的发展，是一部解放劳动者的“不断地从必然王国向自由王国发展的历史”。但人工智能技术的资本主义应用反而试图将劳动者永久束缚在“奴役人的异己存在物”的必然王国内，这样，在资本主义的威慑下，劳动继续充当人类谋生的手段，劳动者依然被迫从事“必要性和外在目的规定要做的劳动”，被资本奴役，进而人工智能“异化、外化、外在化”为为资本逻辑服务的剥削工具。

(I) The Capitalist Application of AI Reduces Workers to a "Useless Class"

（一）人工智能的资本主义应用使劳动者沦为“无用阶级”

Capitalist private ownership inevitably creates the opposition between capital and labor. To extract as much surplus value as possible, capitalists use science and technology to "prolong relative surplus labor time and shorten necessary labor time." The enormous efficiency brought by scientific and technological progress continuously reduces the amount of labor expended in production. A large number of workers are forced to remain outside the labor process, the contradiction between capital and labor deepens, and workers ultimately become a "useless class" with neither work nor social utility.

资本主义私有制必然造成资本与劳动的对立。为攫取尽可能多的剩余价值，资本家利用科学技术“延长相对剩余劳动时间和缩短必要劳动时间”。科学技术进步带来的巨大效率不断减少生产中已耗费的劳动量，大量劳动者被迫置身劳动过程之外，资本与劳动的矛盾深化，劳动者最终沦为既无工作又无社会用处的“无用阶级”。

Marx pointed out the true purpose of capitalist production in a single phrase: "Capitalist production is not merely the production of commodities; it is essentially the production of surplus value." The production of use-values is the illusion of capital, while the production of surplus value is the reality of capital. The length of surplus labor time directly determines the amount of surplus value, so capitalists always seek by every means to appropriate the surplus labor time of others. The most effective method of appropriating the surplus labor time of others is to shorten necessary labor time to the maximum, and this can only be achieved by continuously raising productive forces. The emergence of machinery exactly conforms to this trend. Machinery is a historical transformation that meets the requirements of capital, enabling humanity to break free from the limitations of bodily organs, amplifying, extending, and enhancing the functions of human bodily organs. Unlike tools, "the machine possesses skill and strength in place of the worker; it is itself the virtuoso, with a soul of its own in the mechanical laws acting through it." [1]1 Marx, "The Fragment on Machines," from the Grundrisse. Machinery can independently carry out production activities and should have lightened the daily toil of workers, but the private ownership of machinery not only increases the workload of workers but also excludes them. The higher production efficiency of machinery produces a substitution effect on workers, expelling them from the workplace. "The self-valorization of capital by means of machinery is directly proportional to the number of workers whose conditions of existence are destroyed by it." [2]2 Marx, Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 15, Section 3. Machinery is alienated by capital into the material mode of existence of capital that excludes workers. "The workers displaced by machinery are set free, creating a surplus working population who must submit to the laws imposed on them by capital." [3]3 Marx, Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 15, Section 4. Driven by the need to survive, workers must serve the machine and obey its "commands." Even if the machine demands that they extend working hours and increase work intensity, they will "gladly accept" because they fear losing their jobs. However, after machinery replaces a large amount of manual labor, there remain machine operations that are "extremely simple, extremely monotonous, and extremely easy to learn" [4]4 Marx, Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 15, Section 5. that require workers to perform. The surplus labor of the workforce can valorize capital, so the relative surplus population remains a regulatory means for capitalist exploitation of labor power—a phenomenon unique to capitalism.

马克思曾一语中的指出资本主义生产的真实目的，“资本主义生产不仅是商品的生产，它实质上是剩余价值的生产”。生产使用价值是资本的假象，而生产剩余价值才是资本的本相。剩余劳动时间的长短直接决定了剩余价值的多少，因此资本家总是想方设法侵吞他人的剩余劳动时间。占有他人剩余劳动时间的最有效方法是最大限度缩短必要劳动时间，而只有不断提高生产力，才能持续压缩必要劳动时间。机器的出现正好顺应了这一趋势。机器是适应资本要求的历史性变革，使人类摆脱身体器官的限制，放大、延展、增强人类身体器官的功能，与工具不同的是，“机器则代替工人而具有技能和力量，它本身就是能工巧匠，它通过在自身中发生作用的力学规律而具有自己的灵魂”。机器可以独立开展生产活动，本应减轻工人每天的辛劳，但机器的私人占有不仅加重了工人的工作量，还排斥了工人。机器较高的生产效率会对工人产生替代效应，将工人排斥出劳动场所。“资本借助机器进行的自行增殖，同生存条件被机器破坏的工人的人数成正比。”机器被资本主义异化为排挤工人的资本的物质存在方式。“被机器排挤的工人游离出来，制造了过剩的劳动人口，这些人不得不听命于资本强加给他们的规律。”迫于生计，工人需要服侍机器，服从于机器的“命令”，即使机器要求他们延长工作时间，加大工作强度，他们也会“欣然接受”，因为他们害怕失去工作。但是，机器替代大量体力劳动后，仍保留“极其简单、极其单调和极容易学会”的机器劳动需要工人操作，劳动力的剩余劳动能为资本增殖，所以相对过剩人口依然是资本主义剥削劳动力的调节手段，这是资本主义的特有现象。

With the advent of the intelligent era, artificial intelligence from the “perspective of capital” intensifies the contradiction between intelligent machines and workers. “We have already seen how this absolute contradiction does away with all repose, stability, and security in the worker’s life, how it constantly threatens, by taking away the instruments of labour, to snatch from his hands the means of subsistence, and, by suppressing his specialised function, to make him superfluous.” [5]5 Karl Marx, “Wage Labour and Capital,” in Marx/Engels Collected Works, vol. 9 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1977), p. 228. [Translator’s note: The English translation follows the standard MECW version.] Under the rampant sway of capital, intelligent production accelerates the “replacement of humans by machines,” substituting for both physical and mental labour in both directions, causing “labour to lose all independence and all attractiveness,” and threatening the survival conditions of workers as never before. Dominated by the logic of capital, intelligent production is a programmed, process-based, mechanised production controlled by algorithms. “For every additional robot per thousand workers, the employment-to-population ratio decreases by 0.2%, or one new robot can replace approximately 3.3 workers.” [6]6 Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo, “Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets,” Journal of Political Economy 128, no. 6 (2020): 2188–2244. [Translator’s note: The authors paraphrase the study’s findings.] Capitalists strive to compress the existing large labour force, thereby devouring the living labour of the entire production process, achieving a “limit of zero for socially average necessary labour time,” and forming a “unmanned automated” production from which workers are absent, because “the production of surplus value, or the making of profits, is the absolute law of this mode of production.” [7]7 Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1, trans. Ben Fowkes (London: Penguin, 1976), p. 742. Artificial intelligence is far superior to human intelligence in terms of speed, precision, and accuracy of computation, and intelligent machines can maintain a stable operating state at all times; their “mood” is not disturbed by any external factors, their working hours are not limited by human physiology, and they can continuously produce for 24 hours. Crucially, they are also a kind of free “labour power.” To fully exploit the advantage of intelligent machines in producing surplus value, capitalists continuously upgrade and iterate artificial intelligence technology at an exponential rate, pushing AI to “evolve” from specialised to general-purpose types following “Moore’s Law,” [8]8 Moore’s Law: The observation that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles approximately every two years, often used to describe the exponential pace of technological advancement in computing. applying it to replace labourers in various fields. Through deep learning, AI continuously projects human intelligence, narrowing the gap with human intelligence. As a result, fields in which humanity once took pride—free imagination, logical reasoning, emotional expression, and artistic creation—are increasingly being replaced by AI. The more “machines displace workers,” the more surplus labour time capital appropriates, which in turn helps capitalists extract surplus value and engage in expanded reproduction. Amir Husain predicts: “By 2030, the number of current jobs in the United States will decrease by 38%, a rate higher than that of Germany (35%), the United Kingdom (30%), and Japan (21%), because the financial services, wholesale, and retail sectors in the US have more routine work and automated processes.” [9]9 Amir Husain, The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence (New York: Scribner, 2017), p. 167. [Translator’s note: The authors paraphrase Husain’s prediction.] Jerry Kaplan bluntly states: “No matter what colour your collar is, automation will be relentless.” [10]10 Jerry Kaplan, Humans Need Not Apply: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), p. 1. [Translator’s note: The authors paraphrase Kaplan’s statement.] Capitalism drives AI to “strangle workers,” depriving them of the right to work, eliminating them from the intelligent production process, expelling them from the labour market, and casting them onto the streets. Thus, a portion of the working class is transformed into a surplus population, becoming a reserve army of labour. Yuval Noah Harari believes that in the future, only a small elite will upgrade from “Homo sapiens” to “Homo deus,” while the majority of “superfluous people” abandoned by capital will ultimately be reduced to a “useless class” that “has no economic, political, or artistic value, and makes no contribution to the prosperity, strength, or glory of society.” [11]11 Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (London: Harvill Secker, 2016), p. 311. [Translator’s note: The authors paraphrase Harari’s concept of the “useless class.”] Although the era of artificial intelligence had not yet arrived in Marx’s lifetime, Marx had already discerned the deep-seated logic behind the emergence of a “useless class” from intelligent machines. Marx believed that the “uselessness” or “usefulness” of workers is determined by the needs of capital’s valorisation: “As soon as the worker’s activity is not required by [capital’s] need, he becomes superfluous,” and “should” be expelled by intelligent machines. Therefore, the “useless class” is essentially a special historical product of the collusion between capital and artificial intelligence. The reason intelligent machines come into contradiction and conflict with wage labour, becoming a force that displaces workers, is not the fault of the machines themselves. The root cause lies in the capitalist application of machines, which is intended to exploit workers and plunder their surplus value. Hence, the emergence of a “useless class” is inevitable.

随着智能时代的到来，“资本视角”的人工智能加剧智能机器与工人的矛盾，“我们已经看到，这个绝对的矛盾怎样破坏着工人生活的一切安宁、稳定和保障，使工人……在劳动资料被夺走的同时，生活资料也不断被夺走，在他的局部职能变成过剩的同时，他本身也变成过剩的东西”。资本大行其道下的智能化生产加速“机器换人”，对体力劳动和脑力劳动双向替代，使“劳动失去了一切独立性和吸引力”，劳动者的生存境遇受到前所未有的威胁。在资本逻辑主导下，智能化生产是经由算法控制的程序化、流程化、机械化生产，“每千名工人中每增加一台智能机器，就业人口比率就会减少0.2%，或者说一台新智能机器可以替代大约3.3个工人”。资本家竭力压缩现有的大量劳动力，从而吞噬整个生产过程的活劳动，实现“社会平均必要劳动量极限为零”，形成工人离场的“无人自动化”生产，因为“生产剩余价值或赚钱，是这个生产方式的绝对规律”。人工智能在运算方面的速度、精准度和准确率远优于人类智能，而且智能机器可以一直保持稳定运行状态，“情绪”不会受外界任何因素的干扰，工作时间也不受人类生理限制，能够24小时持续进行生产，关键它还是一种免费“劳动力”。资本家为充分发挥智能机器生产剩余价值的优势，不断对人工智能技术以指数级速度升级迭代，推动人工智能遵循“摩尔定律”从专用型向通用型“进化”，将其代替劳动者应用于各领域；人工智能通过不断深度学习，投影人类智能，缩小与人类智能的差距，结果人类引以为傲的自由想象、逻辑推理、情感表达及艺术创作等领域，也日渐被人工智能所取代，而“机器排挤工人”越多，资本侵占的剩余劳动时间就越多，就越有助于资本家赚取剩余价值，进行扩大再生产。阿米尔·侯赛因预言：“到2030年，美国目前的工作岗位数量将减少38%，这一比率比德国（35%）、英国（30%）和日本（21%）都要高，这是因为美国的金融服务业以及批发和零售业中的常规工作和自动化流程较多。”杰瑞·卡普兰直言不讳地说道：“无论你的领子是什么颜色，自动化都会毫不留情。”资本主义驱使人工智能“扼杀工人”，剥夺工人劳动权，将工人从智能化生产过程中淘汰，抛出劳动市场，抛向街头，从而一部分工人阶级转化为过剩人口，成为劳动后备军。尤瓦尔·赫拉利认为，未来只有少数精英会从“智人”升级到“智神”，而那些被资本抛弃的大多数“多余的人”，最终沦为“没有任何经济、政治或艺术价值，对社会的繁荣、力量和荣耀也没有任何贡献的无用阶级”。虽然马克思生活的时代人工智能尚未出现，但马克思早已洞见智能机器产生“无用阶级”的背后深层次逻辑。马克思认为，工人的“无用”或“有用”是针对资本增殖的需要而言的，“只要工人的活动不是［资本的］需要所要求的，工人便成为多余的了”，就“应该”被智能机器驱逐，所以“无用阶级”实质上是资本与人工智能合谋的特殊历史产物。智能机器之所以与雇佣劳动相矛盾和相对抗而成为排挤工人的力量，本身并不是智能机器的过错，根源在于机器的资本主义应用是为了剥削工人，掠夺工人的剩余价值，所以产生“无用阶级”是必然的。

(II) The Socialised Large-Scale Production of Artificial Intelligence Dominated by Capitalist Private Ownership Widens Social Wealth Disparities

（二）资本主义私有制主导的人工智能社会化大生产扩大社会贫富差距

Intelligent production increases social labour productivity, achieving a dramatic increase in social material wealth. The social nature of intelligent production dictates that wealth should be shared by all members of society. However, under the conditions of capitalist private ownership, artificial intelligence causes “an initially envisioned open collaborative production system capable of producing public goods to rapidly degenerate into a super-exploitative system where capital takes whatever it wants,” [12]12 The authors are paraphrasing a critical observation about the transformation of open collaborative production under capitalism; the specific source is not identified in the original text. and social wealth is monopolised by a minority. Artificial intelligence becomes an accomplice of capital in plundering workers’ means of production, alienating their means of subsistence, and exploiting their labour. As a result, “labour produces wonderful things for the rich, but for the worker it produces destitution. Labour produces palaces, but for the worker it produces hovels.” [13]13 Karl Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” in Marx/Engels Collected Works, vol. 3 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), p. 273.

智能化生产提高社会劳动生产率，实现社会物质财富剧增。智能化生产的社会性决定财富应归全体社会成员共同享有，但资本主义私有制生产条件下的人工智能使“最初设想的一个能生产公共品的开放协作生产体系却迅速蜕变成资本予取予夺的超级剥削体系”，社会财富被少数人霸占。人工智能成为资本掠夺工人生产资料、游离工人生活资料、剥削工人劳动的帮凶，结果“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”。

Capitalism uses artificial intelligence to pursue profits and achieve wealth accumulation mainly through the following two avenues: First, capitalism creates a “useless class” to appropriate the wealth generated by intelligent machines for itself. Intelligent production excludes many workers from the labour process, depriving them of the qualification to participate in wealth distribution. The “labour power” market is left mainly with intelligent machines. Consequently, ownership of intelligent machines determines who receives the wealth. Because advanced intelligent machines are expensive and costly to maintain and repair, only a few large enterprises can afford them. Thus, the ownership of intelligent machines is monopolised by capitalists, and the material wealth produced by intelligent machines flows to them. Driven by artificial intelligence, “the global capitalist mainstream cultural belief system is evolving in an iterative process, reducing those at the top of the pyramid from the ‘top 1%’ to the ‘top 0.1%’, and then to the ‘top 0.01%’. The eight richest billionaires own more wealth than the poorest half of the global population.” [14]14 The authors cite a widely reported statistic from Oxfam International; see, e.g., Oxfam, “An Economy for the 1%,” Oxfam Briefing Paper, 2016. The “siphon effect” of wealth further concentrates wealth in the hands of capitalists: “The richest will become richer and more influential, while those lacking skills will become poorer and more marginalised.” [15]15 The authors paraphrase a common argument in critical literature on AI and inequality; the specific source is not identified in the original text.

资本主义借由人工智能追逐利润，实现财富增值的途径主要有以下两种：一是资本主义通过制造“无用阶级”将智能机器创造的财富占为己有。智能化生产把许多工人排除到劳动过程之外，工人丧失参与财富分配的资格，“劳动力”市场主要剩下智能机器。于是，智能机器的所有权决定了财富的归属者。由于先进的智能机器价格昂贵、维护保养成本高，所以只有少数大型企业才买得起，就此智能机器的所有权被资本家垄断，智能机器生产的物质财富流向资本家。在人工智能的推动下，“全球资本主义主流文化信仰体系正在一个迭代流程中不断发展，使位于金字塔尖的人从‘前1%’减少到‘前0.1%’，然后再减少到‘前0.01%’。8名最富有的亿万富翁所拥有的财富比全球一半的最贫穷人口的财富还要多”。财富的“虹吸效应”进一步将财富聚集到资本家手中，“最富有的人会变得更加富有、更有影响力，而缺乏技能的人则会变得更穷、更加边缘化”。

Second, it squeezes the workers already employed, extending surplus labour time while strictly controlling wage increases within the exploitative range that benefits capital accumulation and expanded reproduction. The intrinsic drive of capital to pursue surplus value impels it to constantly adjust the organic composition of capital, that is, the ratio of constant capital (C) to variable capital (V). Capitalism expands the scope of artificial intelligence use, reduces the number of hired workers, and simultaneously intensifies the exploitation and oppression of those already employed. Capitalism manipulates artificial intelligence to dominate workers, degrading them into mere “living appendages” of AI, so that social wealth becomes the antithesis of their own labour: workers expend labour but cannot appropriate the wealth they create. As Marx points out: “With the development of the productive power of labour, the objective conditions of labour, i.e. objectified labour, must grow in relation to living labour… and an ever larger portion of social wealth confronts labour as an alien and dominating power.” To maintain its absolute dominance over the possession of social wealth, capitalism abuses intelligent technology to construct a hyper-strong surveillance system. Capitalists can monitor workers’ movements, work status, and efficiency at any time based on big data monitoring results; “employees with smartphones need to be ‘on call’ around the clock, which shows that the deployment of technology is based on considerations of specific interests.” Under the high-intensity surveillance of AI, the boundary between labour and leisure disappears. Especially in the new fields of the platform economy and the gig economy, workers are trapped within big-data algorithms; even during their leisure time they labour for the capitalist free of charge, and the wealth they create is appropriated by the capitalist. The Sisyphus-like[16]16 Sisyphus-like: A reference to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, condemned to endlessly roll a boulder uphill only for it to roll back down, used here to describe the futile and repetitive nature of capitalist accumulation. greedy nature of capitalist accumulation forces wealth to shift unilaterally toward capital, with the result that the more wealth workers produce, the poorer they become. To exploit workers under a legitimate pretext, capitalists claim to “improve” workers’ lives through “overtime pay,” “wage benefits,” “wage increases,” and so on. But Marx long ago exposed the lie of capitalist wages. “The rise in the price of labour is confined within limits that not only leave the foundation of the capitalist system untouched, but also guarantee its reproduction on an expanding scale”; that is, the capitalist “keeps wages at a low level that suits the needs of capital.” The wages workers receive are a mere drop in the bucket compared with the surplus value the capitalist squeezes out of them, and moreover this tactic of the capitalist is aimed at intensifying exploitation. In short, no matter which method of wealth augmentation capitalism adopts, the result is that resources and wealth in the intelligent era become increasingly concentrated in the hands of capital owners, and the phenomena of relative poverty, powerlessness, and degradation of workers that Marx exposed become ever more severe.

二是对在职工人进行压榨，延长剩余劳动时间的同时，严格把工资增长控制在有利于资本积累和扩大再生产的剥削范围内。资本追逐剩余价值的内在动机驱使其不断调整资本有机构成，即不变资本（C）和可变资本（V）的比例。资本主义不断扩大人工智能的使用范围，减少雇佣工人，同时加大对在职工人的剥削、压迫。资本主义操控人工智能统治工人，将工人退化为人工智能“单纯的活的附件”，社会财富成为自己劳动的对立面，工人付出劳动却不能占有自己创造的财富。正如马克思指出：“随着劳动生产力的发展，劳动的物的条件即对象化劳动，同活劳动相比必然增长……而社会财富的越来越巨大的部分作为异己的和统治的权力同劳动相对立。”资本主义为维护其在社会财富占有方面的绝对统治地位，滥用智能技术构建了超强的监督体系。资本家根据大数据监测结果可以随时监控工人的动向、工作状态和工作效率，“拥有智能手机的员工需要全天候‘随叫随到’，这表明技术的部署是基于特定利益考量的”。在人工智能的高强度监控下，劳动与休闲的界限消失，尤其在平台经济和零工经济新领域，劳动者被困在大数据算法内，其休闲时也在为资本家免费劳动，创造的财富被资本家据为己有。资本家息息法斯式积累的贪婪本性迫使财富单向性向资本转移，结果工人生产的财富越多，反而越贫穷。资本家为了名正言顺地剥削工人，宣称以“加班费”“工资福利”“上调工资”等“改善”工人的生活，但马克思早已对资本主义的工资谎言进行过深刻揭露。“劳动价格的提高被限制在这样的界限内，这个界限不仅使资本主义制度的基础不受侵犯，而且还保证资本主义制度的规模扩大的再生产”，即资本家“把工资抑制在合乎资本家需要的低水平上”。工人获得的工资与资本家从工人身上榨取的剩余价值相比简直是九牛一毛，而且资本家此举旨在加大对工人的剥削。简言之，无论资本主义采取哪种财富增值方式，结果都是使智能时代的资源和财富日益集中到资本所有者手中，马克思所揭露的工人的相对贫困、无力、低贱等异化现象则愈加严重。

Although artificial intelligence greatly promotes the development of productive forces and the immense enrichment of material products, the essence of capitalism’s exploitation of labour through AI has not changed, the reality of widening wealth disparity has not changed, and workers in the “realm of necessity” remain bound to specific material production processes, with labour still merely a means for human survival.

尽管人工智能促进生产力的极大发展、物质产品的极大丰富，但资本主义利用人工智能剥削劳动的本质并未改变，贫富差距加大的现状并未改变，“必然王国”中的劳动者依旧被束缚在特定的物质生产过程之中，劳动也还只是人类维持生存的手段。

II. The Development of Artificial Intelligence Is a Historical Opportunity for Humanity to Escape the Constraints of the Realm of Necessity

二、人工智能发展是人类摆脱必然王国约束的历史契机

When capitalism uses artificial intelligence technology to serve the valorisation of capital, its own inherent and irreconcilable contradictions instead impel the social practice of AI to continuously break through the fetters of the logic of capital, threatening the survival of capitalism. As Joseph Schumpeter said: “There is an inherent tendency toward self-destruction within the capitalist system, a tendency that in its earlier stages may very clearly manifest itself as a tendency to retard progress—something that has been discovered in the past from different standpoints and (I think) with insufficient reason.” The development of artificial intelligence liberates humanity from the constraints of the realm of necessity; from this point onward, “the social causes set in motion by human beings will, to a large and ever-increasing extent, achieve the results they intend.”

资本主义利用人工智能技术为资本增殖服务时，其自身无法调和的固有矛盾反而激发人工智能的社会实践不断冲破资本逻辑的桎梏，威胁资本主义的生存。正如约瑟夫·熊彼特所言：“在资本主义制度内部有一种固有的、自我毁灭的趋势，这个趋势在它的较早阶段可能非常明显地表现为阻滞进步的趋势形式这个过去以不同立场和（我想）不充分理由常常发现过的东西。”人工智能的发展使人类从必然王国的约束中解放出来，从这时起，“由人们使之起作用的社会原因才大部分并且越来越多地达到他们所预期的结果”。

(I) Intelligent Production Creates Conditions for the Realisation of the Liberation of Labour

（一）智能化生产为实现劳动解放创造了条件

While capitalism uses artificial intelligence to create a “useless class,” it simultaneously and invisibly creates a “free class,” accelerating the liberation of labour. Intelligent production, based on a mode of existence that conforms to human nature, enables people to escape the material constraints necessary for survival and livelihood, “universally reduces the necessary labour time required for production, thereby liberating free time,” and “labour is no longer labour, but labour liberated from labour.” Therefore, the practical development of artificial intelligence promotes the freedom of labour.

资本主义在利用人工智能制造“无用阶级”的同时，无形中缔造了“自由阶级”，加快了劳动解放。智能化生产合乎人性的存在的基础，使人们摆脱生存、生活所必需的物质困扰，“普遍减少生产所需的必要劳动时间，自由时间得以解放”，“劳动不再是劳动，而是从劳动中解放出来的劳动”，因此，人工智能的发展实践推动了劳动的自由。

The labour time and free time of workers stand in opposition and antagonism to each other, in an inverse proportional relationship. The shortening of labour time implies the extension of free time, i.e., workers have more time to develop the human capacity that is an end in itself. For workers to truly realise the freedom of labour, the greatest obstacle is the necessary labour of material production—the labour required to satisfy absolute needs, the means of human subsistence, which constantly prepares the material foundation and conditions for labour freedom. Only on the basis of satisfying the needs of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation can workers have time to do other things. Therefore, one cannot talk about labour freedom in the abstract, divorced from the material goods that sustain the workers’ own existence and are consumed. While reducing necessary labour time, it is also necessary to ensure an abundance of material products, so that only then can one truly possess freely disposable time, realise the liberation of labour, and attain labour freedom. With the progress of science and technology and their widespread application, while the material life of humanity continuously improves, the greatly increased production efficiency also increasingly shortens the necessary labour time for producing products, increasing workers’ leisure time. Especially the universal replacement of workers by artificial intelligence reverses the relationship between labour time and free time, providing a historical opportunity for the liberation of labour. In the *Grundrisse* (1857–1858), Marx, criticising Fourier’s erroneous view—expressed “in a thoroughly romantic and girlish manner”—that labour freedom is “a game, an amusement,” put forward his own genuine insight into truly free labour. Marx emphasised that truly free labour should possess two qualities: sociality and scientificity. In the production process, workers labour voluntarily and dominate the entire labour process.

劳动者的劳动时间和自由时间是对立和对抗的，二者呈反比例关系。劳动时间的缩短意味着自由时间的延长，即劳动者拥有更多的时间发挥目的本身的人类能力。劳动者要想真正实现劳动自由，物质生产的必要劳动——满足绝对需要所必需的劳动，人类谋生的手段，时刻为劳动自由准备着物质基础和条件——是最大的障碍，因此，只有在满足了吃、穿、住、行的基础上，劳动者才有时间去做其他事情。所以，不能脱离维持劳动者本身的生存所需要和消费的物质空谈劳动自由，在缩减必要劳动时间的同时，也要确保丰裕的物质产品，这样才能在真正意义上拥有自由支配的时间，实现劳动解放，获得劳动自由。随着科学技术的进步及其广泛应用，在人类物质生活不断改善的同时，大幅度提高的生产效率也在日益缩短产品生产的必要劳动时间，增加劳动者的闲暇时间，尤其是人工智能对劳动者的普遍替代，倒转了劳动时间和空闲时间，为劳动解放提供了一个历史机遇。马克思在《政治经济学批判（1857—1858年手稿）》中针对傅立叶“完全以一个浪漫女郎的方式极其天真地”把劳动自由理解为“一种娱乐，一种消遣”的错误见解，提出了自己对真正自由的劳动的真知灼见。马克思强调真正自由的劳动应当具有社会性和科学性两种性质，劳动者在生产过程中是自愿劳动的，并且主导整个劳动过程。

The production process of artificial intelligence conforms to the two qualities by which Marx defined labour freedom. First, the intelligent production process is supported by information technologies such as big data, blockchain, and the Internet of Things, breaking the limits of traditional production space, unifying different production organisations, and coordinating the production arrangements of different departments according to social needs. Every production link is inseparable from the mutual cooperation of the entire society; thus intelligent production possesses the characteristics of large-scale socialised production. The socialised large-scale production of AI “transforms many scattered and mutually independent individual labour processes into one combined social labour process.” Moreover, AI’s replacement of physical and mental labour maximally shortens workers’ labour time, liberating them from dangerous, heavy, and tedious physical labour as well as from normative, systematic, and uniform mental labour. The direct quantity of workers’ labour falls to an insignificant proportion; workers stand beside the intelligent production process as supervisors and regulators. AI increasingly becomes the “right and left hand” of workers, “through industry, practically entering into human life, transforming human life, and preparing for the liberation of humanity.”

人工智能的生产过程符合马克思界定劳动自由的两种性质。一是智能化生产过程以大数据、区块链、物联网等信息技术为支撑，打破传统生产空间的限制，将不同的生产组织统一起来，根据社会需要统一调度不同生产部门的生产安排，每一个生产环节都离不开整个社会的相互配合，由此智能化生产具有社会化大生产的特征。人工智能的社会化大生产“使许多分散的和互不依赖的单个劳动过程转化为一个结合的社会劳动过程”。另外，人工智能对体力、脑力劳动的替代最大限度地缩短了劳动者的劳动时间，使劳动者从危险的、繁重的和乏味的体力劳动以及规范性、系统性和统一性的脑力劳动中解放出来。劳动者直接劳动的量降到微不足道的比例，劳动者以监督者和调节者的身份站在智能化生产过程的旁边。人工智能日益成为劳动者的“左膀右臂”，“通过工业日益在实践上进入人的生活，改造人的生活，并为人的解放作准备”。

Second, as a disruptive innovation, artificial intelligence is a “real historical relation” of science and technology to human beings, integrating in practice into the work of labourers and altering their work patterns and work experience. Under intelligent production, “the new information technology replaces the control methods that workers have still been using over the production process by compiling specific instructions into programs and inputting them directly into machines, which then execute them one by one.” [17]17 “dangerous leap” (惊险一跃): A reference to Marx’s description in Capital of the sale of commodities as a “salto mortale” (deadly leap); if the commodity is not sold, the producer is ruined. AI production appears to be “assembly-line work,” but each production step contains complex program instructions. These instructions, by simulating the human brain, greatly enhance production efficiency, reducing the necessary labour time of the entire society to a minimum, thereby freeing up disposable time for labourers. The saving of necessary labour time in intelligent production is based on the development of social productive forces; it neither restricts material production and consumption nor limits the development of individual talents. “Saving labour time is equivalent to increasing free time, i.e., time for the full development of the individual, which in turn reacts upon the productive power of labour as the greatest productive power itself.” [18]18 “relative surplus population” (相对过剩人口): Marx’s term in Capital for the part of the working class rendered superfluous by the accumulation of capital and the rising organic composition of capital, forming an industrial reserve army. At the same time, AI’s saving of labour time greatly reduces the labour burden and labour intensity of workers, who then break free from repulsive, externally imposed forced labour and return to labour freedom. Moreover, this “free time—whether as leisure time or as time for higher activities—naturally transforms its possessor into another subject, and as this other subject he then enters into the direct production process.” [19]19 “Gentle prison of the factory”: A reference to the factory as a site of discipline and control, echoing critiques of industrial labor as a form of incarceration, though here softened by automation. For labourers who have attained labour freedom, this direct production process is one in which they can freely develop their own purposes. As AI is widely applied across various fields, its substitution effect on living labour reveals an increasingly positive aspect, conducive to liberating labour and restoring workers’ freedom.

二是人工智能作为一种颠覆式创新，是科学技术对人的“现实的历史关系”，在实践上融入劳动者的工作，改变劳动者的工作模式和工作体验。智能化生产下“新的信息技术通过把具体的指令编成程序直接输入机器，然后逐条执行，以代替工人至今还在沿用的对生产过程实施的控制方法”。人工智能的生产看似“流水线作业”，但每一个生产步骤都内含复杂的程序指令，这些程序指令通过模拟人的大脑极大地提高生产效率，把整个社会的必要劳动时间节约到最低限度，从而为劳动者腾出可以自由支配的时间。智能化生产的必要劳动时间的节约建立在社会生产力发展的基础上，既没有限制物质生产和消费，又没有限制个人才能的发展。“节约劳动时间等于增加自由时间，即增加使个人得到充分发展的时间，而个人的充分发展又作为最大的生产力反作用于劳动生产力。”与此同时，人工智能对劳动时间的节约极大地减轻了劳动者的劳动负荷和劳动强度，劳动者继而摆脱令人厌恶的、外在的强制劳动，复归劳动自由，而且这种“自由时间——不论是闲暇时间还是从事较高级活动的时间——自然要把占有它的人变为另一主体，于是他作为这另一主体又加入直接生产过程”。对于获得劳动自由的劳动者而言，这个直接生产过程就是劳动者可以自由地发展自己的目的。随着人工智能在各领域的广泛应用，人工智能对活劳动的替代影响，彰显出更加积极的一面，将有利于解放劳动，恢复劳动者自由。

(II) Artificial Intelligence Lays the Material and Technological Foundation for Blasting Apart Capitalist Value Relations

（二）人工智能为炸毁资本主义价值关系奠定了物质技术基础

Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword: it is both a tool for capitalists to amass wealth and an accelerator for uprooting the foundations of capitalism, potentially eroding capitalist value relations and driving the capitalist system toward the abyss of destruction. Marx once provided a classic exposition of how capitalism, in its self-contradictory development, uses science and technology to construct productive forces and relations of production that serve capital’s interests—exploiting labour and extracting wealth—only to ultimately destroy the foundations of the capitalist system. Marx incisively stated: “On the one side, capital calls to life all the powers of science and of nature, as well as of social combination and of social intercourse, in order to make the creation of wealth independent (relatively) of the labour time employed in that creation. On the other side, capital wants to use labour time as the measure of the vast social forces thus created, and to confine them within the limits required to maintain the already created value as value. The productive forces and the relations of production—both of which are merely different aspects of the development of the social individual—appear to capital merely as the means to carry on production from its limited foundation. In fact, however, they are the material conditions to blow this foundation sky-high.” [20]20 “Useless class”: A term popularized in debates about technological unemployment, contrasting with Marx’s “reserve army of labor” or the “lumpenproletariat.” The specific logic by which AI blasts apart capitalist value relations is inherent in the process by which capital uses AI production to acquire wealth. “Machines replacing humans” eliminates the living labour of workers, driving direct labour off the historical stage and thereby annihilating value. The value of a commodity is the undifferentiated human abstract labour congealed in it; human living labour is the sole source of value creation, and the quantity of labour determines the magnitude of value. When the labour time required to produce a commodity shortens, the value contained in each unit of the commodity decreases; if commodity production no longer requires human living labour, the historical mission of the capitalist labour theory of value is fulfilled. “Capital is dead labour, which, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.” [21]21 “Species-being” (Gattungswesen): A key concept in Marx’s early writings, referring to humanity’s essence as a free, conscious, and universal creative being, alienated under capitalism. But

人工智能是一把双刃剑，既是资本家敛财的工具，也是铲除资本主义根基的加速器，潜在地侵蚀着资本主义的价值关系，把资本主义制度推向毁灭的深渊。马克思曾对资本主义在自我矛盾的发展中，利用科学技术建构符合资本利益的生产力和生产关系以便剥削劳动、汲取财富的方式将最终摧毁资本主义制度基础有过一段经典的阐述。马克思精辟地说道：“一方面，资本唤起科学和自然界的一切力量，同样也唤起社会结合和社会交往的一切力量，以便使财富的创造不取决于（相对地）耗费在这种创造上的劳动时间。另一方面，资本想用劳动时间去衡量这样造出来的巨大的社会力量，并把这些力量限制在为了把已经创造的价值作为价值来保存所需要的限度之内。生产力和生产关系——这二者是社会个人的发展的不同方面——对于资本来说仅仅表现为手段，仅仅是资本用来从它的有限的基础出发进行生产的手段。但是，实际上它们是炸毁这个基础的物质条件。”人工智能炸毁资本主义价值关系的具体逻辑内蕴于资本利用人工智能生产获取财富的过程中。“机器换人”消灭劳动者的活劳动，驱使直接劳动退出历史舞台，从而消亡价值。商品的价值是凝结在商品中的无差别的人类抽象劳动，人类的活劳动是创造价值的唯一源泉，劳动量决定价值量。当生产商品耗费的劳动时间越短时，单位商品内所包含的价值就越小；若商品生产不再需要人类活劳动，资本主义劳动价值论的历史使命就完成了。“资本是死劳动，它像吸血鬼一样，只有吮吸活劳动才有生命，吮吸的活劳动越多，它的生命就越旺盛”，但是当它停止吮吸活劳动时，它的生命将“凋亡”，工人“创造价值的力量作为无限小的量而趋于消失”。

The large-scale abandonment of workers by intelligent production under capitalist rule means that capital no longer devours living labour, and “direct labour is reduced quantitatively to a negligible proportion, and qualitatively it becomes … a subordinate element.” Direct labour loses its function in intelligent production, and value can no longer be measured by the labour yardstick. “Thus capital itself works towards its own dissolution as the form dominating production,” and the value basis of capital tends to disappear. Furthermore, the socialised large-scale production of artificial intelligence increases use value, and while accelerating the private ownership of wealth, it also extinguishes exchange value. Although artificial intelligence does not create value, its extremely high production efficiency creates use value in geometric progression within a short period of time. The more use value there is, the more wealth artificial intelligence creates, whereas exchange value is essentially the exchange of labour. After artificial intelligence displaces workers, the capitalist appropriates the use value of all material products produced by artificial intelligence. However, producing the use value of material products is not the capitalist’s goal; the ultimate purpose of capital is to take them to the market and sell them, “transforming them into the form of exchange value, into money.” Yet because the workers abandoned by artificial intelligence have become a “relative surplus population,” these “idle poor” lose their source of income, lose their consumption capacity, and their living status becomes increasingly insecure. The consequence is that “they do not live by the labour of their own labour capacity, no longer by the normal reproduction of the worker; instead, others support them with alms, and they thus become beggars and paupers; since they no longer support themselves through their own necessary labour, that is, through exchange with a portion of capital, they lose all connection with the conditions of the apparent exchange relation and the apparent relation of independence.” At this point, within this exchange value or monetary relation, “the contradiction between the commodity and its exchange value” and “the contradiction between the commodity as exchange value and money” are intensified, and the material product fails in its “dangerous leap” into money. Tracing the root cause, intelligent machines as means of labour can only create use value, not value; this means that the share or quantity of human labour time objectified in the product is zero, and labour time does not “exist in that particular commodity which is posited as money.” However, labour time is not only an important basis for the equivalent exchange of commodities but also the key to measuring labour value. Therefore, the limit of zero human labour time in intelligent production causes commodities to lose the core of equivalent exchange, and workers lose the right to exchange with capital, thereby “within bourgeois society based on exchange value, there arise relations of intercourse and relations of production” that dissolve the value relations of capital, “and are at the same time the mines that will blow this society apart.” In summary, although the capitalist applies artificial intelligence to create and appropriate vast amounts of wealth, the powerful productive capacity demonstrated by artificial intelligence constantly opposes the determination of value by labour time, opposes the mode of exchange, and continuously corrodes the value relations of capital. Therefore, “once direct labour in its immediate form ceases to be the great source of wealth, labour time ceases and must necessarily cease to be the measure of wealth, and hence exchange value ceases to be the measure of use value.” At that point, “production based on exchange value collapses.”

资本主义统治下的智能化生产大肆抛弃劳动者，意味着资本不再吞噬活劳动，“直接劳动在量的方面降到微不足道的比例，那么它在质的方面……变成一种从属的要素”，直接劳动在智能化生产中失去作用，价值无法用劳动尺度衡量，“于是，资本也就促使自身这一统治生产的形式发生解体”，资本的价值基础趋于消亡。此外，人工智能的社会化大生产增加使用价值，加速财富私有的同时，覆灭交换价值。虽然人工智能并不创造价值，但它极高的生产效率在短时间内创造的使用价值呈几何级数增长。使用价值越多，说明人工智能创造的财富越多，而交换价值本质上是劳动的交换。人工智能排挤工人后，资本家占有人工智能生产的全部物质产品的使用价值。然而，生产物质产品的使用价值不是资本家的目的，把它们拿到市场上卖出并“转化为交换价值的形式，转化为货币”才是资本的终极目的。但由于被人工智能抛弃的工人已变成“相对过剩人口”，这些“闲散贫民”丧失收入来源，丧失消费能力，生活地位越来越没有保障。这带来的后果是，“他们不是靠劳动能力本身的劳动来生活，不再是靠工人的正常再生产来生活；而是别人用施舍来养活他们，因此他们变成乞丐和赤贫；既然他们不再通过自己的必要劳动来养活自己，也就是说，不再通过与一部分资本的交换来养活自己，那么，他们就同表面上的交换关系和表面上的独立关系的条件失去了联系”。此时，在这种交换价值或货币关系中，“商品同它的交换价值之间的矛盾”以及“作为交换价值的商品同货币之间的矛盾”被激化，物质产品跳到货币的“惊险一跃”失败。究其根源，作为劳动资料的智能机器只能创造使用价值，并不能创造价值，这意味着物化在产品中的人类劳动时间的份额或量为零，劳动时间并不“存在于被设定为货币的那种特殊商品中”。但是，劳动时间不仅是商品等价交换的重要依据，而且是衡量劳动价值的关键，所以，智能化生产中人类劳动时间极限为零使得商品丧失了等价交换的核心，劳动者丧失了与资本交换的权利，从而“在以交换价值为基础的资产阶级社会内部，产生出一些交往关系和生产关系”，它们瓦解了资本的价值关系，“同时又是炸毁这个社会的地雷”。综上可知，尽管资本家应用人工智能创造和占有了海量财富，但人工智能所表现的强大生产能力不断反对劳动时间决定价值，反对交换方式，不断腐蚀资本主义的价值关系，因此，“一旦直接形式的劳动不再是财富的巨大源泉，劳动时间就不再是，而且必然不再是财富的尺度，因而交换价值也不再是使用价值的尺度”，这时，“以交换价值为基础的生产便会崩溃”。

The expansive force of artificial intelligence gradually breaks through the fetters of the capitalist mode of production, “threatening the existence of bourgeois property.” The whole society begins to slowly shake off the bondage of the capitalist realm of necessity and move toward the far shore of the true realm of material production. At this point, the true realm of freedom begins.

人工智能的扩张力逐渐冲破资本主义生产方式的桎梏，“使资产阶级所有制的存在受到威胁”。整个社会开始慢慢摆脱资本主义必然王国的束缚，迈向真正物质生产领域的彼岸，这时，真正的自由王国就开始了。

III. The Real Possibility of Artificial Intelligence Development Pushing Human Society toward the Realm of Freedom

三、人工智能发展推动人类社会迈向自由王国的现实可能性

The liberation of labour by artificial intelligence promotes the free and comprehensive development of human beings, making freely disposable time the measure of wealth, thereby providing the real possibility for human society to enter the realm of freedom from the realm of necessity.

人工智能对劳动的解放促进人的自由全面发展，使自由支配的时间成为财富的尺度，从而为人类社会从必然王国进入自由王国提供了现实可能性。

(I) Artificial Intelligence Realizes the Liberation of Human Labor and Promotes the All-Round Development of Human Beings

（一）人工智能实现人类劳动解放，促进人的全面发展

An important condition for humanity’s transition from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom is leisure time, which ensures that human beings can freely develop their capacities. Artificial intelligence enables people to escape the “gentle prison” of the factory, successfully eliminating the opposition between labor and leisure. Leisure is no longer the privilege of the “minority of non-laboring classes.” With the help of artificial intelligence, people can not only participate in labor with dignity, freely and consciously, but also enjoy their leisure time. “Time is the space for human development.” People who possess leisure time will not degenerate into a “useless class”; on the contrary, “if, because of artificial intelligence, society no longer needs our contributions through work, then we will find meaning in life and realize our self-worth by devoting ourselves to charitable causes, continuously learning and enriching ourselves, participating in artistic activities, and seeking out hobbies and interests.” The awakening of human nature has arrived in the intelligent era; humanity is beginning to return to itself. Alienated labor is sublated by artificial intelligence, and as a species-being, free labor is the essence of the human being. Under the conditions of intelligent production, labor is no longer a means of making a living but “the primary need of life.” Humanity has become the true master of its own labor. “Man appropriates his comprehensive essence in a comprehensive way, that is to say, as a whole man.” The comprehensive essence is the appropriation and realization of the manifold realities of the human being, encompassing both human activity and human passivity, and for humanity it is a form of self-enjoyment. Under these conditions, humanity masters and directs free labor, and free labor creates the conditions for the all-round development of the human being. The communist scene described by Marx increasingly manifests itself: people are thoroughly liberated from the tedious, repetitive, and monotonous labor of intelligent machines, freely switching their occupations, with enhanced mobility, choice, and autonomy in work; they freely receive personal education, develop their intelligence and talents, fulfill social functions, expand social interactions, exercise their physical and mental powers, and engage in higher activities such as science, literature, and art. All of these human activities are “free, conscious activities” emanating from the heart.

人类从必然王国过渡到自由王国的重要条件是闲暇时间，闲暇时间能确保人类自由地发展自己的能力。人工智能使人们逃脱工厂“温和的监狱”，成功消除了劳动与闲暇的对立，闲暇不再是“少数不劳动阶级”的特权，人们借助人工智能不仅可以有尊严地、自由自觉地参与劳动，而且还能享受自己的闲暇时间。“时间是人类发展的空间”，拥有闲暇时间的人并不会沦为“无用阶级”，反而“如果因为人工智能原因，社会不再需要我们工作做出的贡献，那么我们会通过投身慈善事业、不断学习充电、参加艺术活动、寻找兴趣爱好等途径找到了生活的意义，实现了自我价值”。人性的觉醒在智能时代已经到来，人类开始复归自身，异化劳动被人工智能扬弃，而且人作为类存在物，自由劳动才是人的本质。智能化生产条件下，劳动不再是谋生的手段，而是“生活的第一需要”，人类成了自己劳动的真正主宰者，“人以一种全面的方式，就是说，作为一个完整的人，占有自己的全面的本质”。全面的本质是对人的多种多样的现实的占有和实现，是人的能动和人的受动，对人来说是一种自我享受。在这种情况下，人掌握和主导自由劳动，自由劳动为人的全面发展创造了条件，马克思笔下描述的共产主义的景象日益显现：人们从智能机器的枯燥乏味、重复单一的劳动中彻底解放出来，自由地转换自己的职业，工作的流动性、选择性和自主性增强；自由地接受个人教育，发展自己的聪明才智，履行社会职能，扩展社会交往，运用体力和智力，从事科学、文学和艺术等较高级的活动，人类的这一切活动都是发自内心的“自由自觉地活动”。

Intelligent “productive labor provides every individual with the opportunity to develop and display all their capacities, both physical and mental, in an all-round way. In this way, productive labor ceases to be a means of enslaving people and becomes a means of liberating them; therefore, productive labor changes from a burden into a pleasure.” This pleasure lies in the fact that everyone can labor freely according to their own interests, hobbies, and expertise, fully manifesting their individuality, stimulating their potential and abilities, and developing themselves freely. “Nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes; society regulates the general production, thus making it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.” Labor is no longer a burden; the dimension of free labor is expanded. People’s aspiration for a better life becomes a reality, and everyone fully enjoys the positive impact of artificial intelligence on the liberation of labor. “Marx’s idea that the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all is no longer a utopian fantasy.” At the same time, artificial intelligence technology changes with each passing day, constantly reshaping the new development landscape of various industries. If people lack a sense of crisis and still cling to traditional work concepts, rather than improving their skills for self-development, they are doomed to be eliminated by the intelligent revolution. To adapt to the new demands of artificial intelligence on labor, humanity must continuously participate in labor skill training, self-renewal, lifelong learning, and lifelong development. In that case, humanity will no longer be the “one-sided man” of traditional industrial society, but a multi-functional talent with free and all-round development in the intelligent era.

智能化“生产劳动给每一个人提供全面发展和表现自己的全部能力即体能和智能的机会，这样，生产劳动就不再是奴役人的手段，而成了解放人的手段，因此，生产劳动就从一种负担变成一种快乐”。这种快乐在于，每个人都可以根据自己的兴趣爱好和专长自由地劳动，全面彰显自己的个性，激发自己的潜能和能力，自由地发展自己，“任何人都没有特殊的活动范围，而是都可以在任何部门内发展，社会调节着整个生产，因而使我有可能随自己的兴趣今天干这事，明天干那事，上午打猎，下午捕鱼，傍晚从事畜牧，晚饭后从事批判，这样就不会使我老是一个猎人、渔夫、牧人或批判者”。劳动不再是一种负担，自由劳动的向度被拓展，人们对美好生活的向往成为现实，每个人都充分享受人工智能对劳动解放带来的积极影响，“马克思关于每个人的自由发展是所有人自由发展的条件的思想不再是空想”。与此同时，人工智能技术日新月异，不断重塑各行各业发展新格局，人们如果没有危机意识，仍固守传统工作观念，而不是去提升自我发展的技能，那么注定会被智能革命淘汰。为适应人工智能对劳动的新要求，人类需不断参加劳动技能培训，自我更新，终身学习，终生发展。那样，人类不再是传统工业社会中的“片面的人”，而是智能时代自由全面发展的多功能人才。

In short, artificial intelligence accelerates the liberation of labor. This process of reshaping helps to bring “the objective alien power, which now stands under our own control,” so that the alien laws governing capital’s domination of social action “are mastered by people and hence come under their command.” In a certain sense, humanity recovers its true self. At that time, “for the first time, people become the conscious and true masters of nature, because they have become the masters of their own social organization.” By virtue of unconstrained free action, they “completely consciously create their own history,” opening up a broad realm for the all-round development of the self in virtue, intelligence, physique, aesthetics, and labor, enhancing their sense of happiness and fulfillment. And this is precisely “the leap of mankind from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom.”

总之，人工智能加速劳动解放，这个重塑过程有助于使“客观的异己的力量，现在处于人们自己的控制之下”，资本统治社会行动的异己的规律“被人们熟练地运用，因而将听从人们的支配”，人在一定意义上找回了真正的自我，那时“人们第一次成为自然界的自觉的和真正的主人，因为他们已经成为自身的社会结合的主人”，凭借无拘束的自由行动“完全自觉地自己创造自己的历史”，开辟了自我的德、智、体、美、劳全面发展的广阔天地，幸福感和获得感增强，而这正是“人类从必然王国进入自由王国的飞跃”。

(II) Free Time Created by Artificial Intelligence Becomes the Measure of Wealth

（二）人工智能创造的自由支配时间成为财富的尺度

In the intelligent era, the free time at the disposal of members of society “subdues” the demon that the bourgeoisie summoned forth, namely that “the foundation of present-day wealth is the theft of others’ labor time,” rendering the magic of capital ineffective. “The measure of wealth is no longer labor time, but disposable free time.” Because “the disposable time that is partly used for the consumption of products and partly for free activity” is wealth itself.

智能时代社会成员自由支配的时间“降服”了资产阶级呼唤出来“现今财富的基础是盗窃他人的劳动时间”的魔鬼，使资本的法术失灵，“财富的尺度决不再是劳动时间，而是可以自由支配的时间”，因为“一部分用于消费产品，一部分用于从事自由活动”的可以自由支配的时间就是财富本身。

Marx once borrowed a passage from Charles Dilke’s *The Source and Remedy of the National Difficulties* (London, 1821, p. 6) to explain the true source of wealth, thereby criticizing the capitalists’ erroneous conception of wealth. Marx quoted: “A nation is truly rich, not when it labours 12 hours, but when it labours 6 hours. Wealth [real wealth] is not command over surplus labour time, but rather, apart from the time spent in immediate production, disposable time for every individual and for the whole society.” The real wealth created by the automated, unmanned production of artificial intelligence is disproportionate to surplus labour time; beyond necessary labour time, it “has abolished the antithesis between disposable time and surplus labour time.” Surplus labour is no longer the condition for the development of general wealth, and at the same time, the non-labour of the exploiting class no longer represents the development of the general ability of the human mind. Thus, artificial intelligence creates a vast amount of disposable time for every member of society, and also lays the foundation for the development of the wealth of the whole society. Just as Yoneji Masuda, one of the principal designers of Japan’s computer revolution, once predicted, “future automation will make ‘time freedom’ replace ‘material accumulation’ as the primary value,” and all the springs of collective wealth will flow freely, “because the time value corresponds to the satisfaction of human and spiritual needs, while the material value corresponds to the satisfaction of physiological and material needs.” [25]25 Yoneji Masuda (1925–1995) was a Japanese sociologist and futurologist known for his work on the information society. The quote is from his book *The Information Society as Post-Industrial Society* (1980). Since the disposable time created by artificial intelligence belongs to all members of society, the common, social productive capacity of all members of society increases, and individuals achieve all-round development. At this point, “all members of society have a rich and ever-improving material life,” and everyone jointly enjoys the wealth created by all. Then the gap between rich and poor created by capitalism’s use of artificial intelligence will disappear, the whole society will achieve wealth sharing, and all members of society will achieve common prosperity. In this way, disposable time will no longer be an antithetical existence. At that time, “on the one hand, the needs of the social individual will become the measure of necessary labour time, and on the other hand, the development of social productive forces will be so rapid that, although production will aim at the enrichment of all people, the disposable time of all people will still increase.” [26]26 This passage is a paraphrase and partial quotation from Marx’s *Grundrisse* (1857–1858), Notebook VII. Because artificial intelligence not only satisfies people’s survival needs, but also enables humans to freely produce “individual needs.” While promoting the rapid development of social productive forces, it also promotes the development of the productive forces of all individuals, so that the material wealth accumulated by the whole society is sufficient to achieve “distribution according to need.” “In fact, if we discard the narrow bourgeois form, what is wealth other than the universality of individual needs, capacities, enjoyments, productive forces, etc., created through universal exchange? What is wealth other than the full development of humanity’s mastery over the forces of nature—both the so-called ‘natural’ forces and the forces of human nature itself? What is wealth other than the absolute unfolding of humanity’s creative potential?” [27]27 This is a direct quotation from Marx’s *Grundrisse*, Notebook VII, in the section on “The Chapter on Capital.” Thus, true wealth is the developed productive forces of all individuals. However, all this is premised on everyone having disposable time; all disposable time is time for individual free development, which brings about the developed productive forces of the individual. In the intelligent age, everyone continuously learns and gains opportunities for full self-development. On the one hand, people constantly learn and update their knowledge of artificial intelligence, learn to use the ever-emerging intelligent products, and engage in work related to artificial intelligence, such as the research and development, management, and maintenance of intelligent products. On the other hand, because artificial intelligence frees up time and creates the means for all people, individuals comprehensively learn anything truly valuable that interests them, such as science and art. All this promotes the development of everyone’s productive forces, thereby creating vast wealth for the whole society. “The great foundation of production and wealth is neither the immediate labour performed by man himself, nor the time he works, but the appropriation of his own general productive force,” that is, “the development of the social individual.” [28]28 This is a direct quotation from Marx’s *Grundrisse*, Notebook VII, often referred to as the “Fragment on Machines.” Ultimately, however, this depends on the individual’s freely disposable time. In essence, the practice of the realm of freedom in the development of artificial intelligence proclaims “the dissolution of capital and of the mode of production based on capital,” [29]29 This phrase is from Marx’s *Grundrisse*, Notebook VII. manifests humanity’s free nature, promotes the development of individual productive forces, achieves the common enjoyment of wealth, and advances the common progress of the whole society.

马克思曾借用查·迪尔克《国民困难的原因及其解决办法》（1821年伦敦版第6页）中的话，阐释了财富的真正来源，以此批判资本家错误的财富观。马克思援引道：“一个国家只有在劳动6小时而不是劳动12小时的时候，才是真正富裕的。财富〈现实的财富〉不是对剩余劳动时间的支配，而是除了耗费在直接生产上面的时间以外，每一个个人和整个社会可以自由支配的时间。”人工智能的自动化、无人化生产创造的现实财富与剩余劳动时间不成比例，在必要劳动时间之外，“消除了可以自由支配的时间和剩余劳动时间的对立”，剩余劳动不再是一般财富发展的条件，同时，剥削阶级的非劳动不再代表人类头脑的一般能力的发展，由此人工智能为每个社会成员创造大量可以自由支配的时间，也为全社会财富的发展奠定了基础。正如日本计算机革命的主要设计者之一增田米治曾预言，“未来的自动化将使‘时间自由’取代‘物质积累’成为主要的价值观”，集体财富的一切源泉充分涌流，“因为时间价值观对应的是满足人性的和精神的需要，而物质价值观对应的则是满足生理和物质的需要”。由于人工智能创造的自由支配时间归全体社会成员所有，所以全体社会成员共同的、社会的生产能力提高，个人实现全面发展，此时“一切社会成员有富足的和一天比一天充裕的物质生活”，所有人共同享受大家创造出来的财富，这时资本主义利用人工智能造就的贫富差距将消失，整个社会实现财富共享，全体社会成员实现共同富裕。这样一来，可以自由支配的时间就不再是对立的存在物了。那时，“一方面，社会的个人的需要将成为必要劳动时间的尺度，另一方面，社会生产力的发展将如此迅速，以致尽管生产将以所有的人富裕为目的，所有的人的可以自由支配的时间还是会增加”。因为，人工智能不仅满足了人们的生存需要，而且使人类可以自由生产“个人的需要”，在促进社会生产力迅速发展的同时，也促进所有个人生产力的发展，由此整个社会积累的物质财富足以实现“按需分配”。“事实上，如果抛掉狭隘的资产阶级形式，那么，财富不就是在普遍交换中产生的个人的需要、才能、享用、生产力等等的普遍性吗？财富不就是人对自然力——既是通常所谓的‘自然’力，又是人本身的自然力——的统治的充分发展吗？财富不就是人的创造天赋的绝对发挥吗？”因而，真正的财富就是所有个人发达的生产力。但是，这一切都是以每个人拥有可以自由支配的时间为前提的，所有自由支配的时间都是个人自由发展的时间，成就了个人发达的生产力。智能时代，每个人都不停地学习，获得充分发展自己的机会。一方面，人们不断学习更新人工智能知识，学会运用不断出现的智能产品，从事人工智能的相关工作，例如，智能产品的研发、管理和维修等；另一方面，由于人工智能给所有的人腾出了时间和创造了手段，个人全方面学习自己感兴趣的任何一切真正有价值的东西，比如科学、艺术等。这些都促进了每个人生产力的发展，进而为全社会创造了大量财富，“表现为生产和财富的宏大基石的，既不是人本身完成的直接劳动，也不是人从事劳动的时间，而是对人本身的一般生产力的占有”，就是“社会个人的发展”，然而，归根结底取决于个人自由可支配的时间。质言之，人工智能发展的自由王国实践宣告了“资本的解体和以资本为基础的生产方式的解体”，彰显了人类的自由本性，促进了个人生产力的发展，实现了财富的共同享有，推动了整个社会的共同进步。

In short, the social practice of artificial intelligence development, while increasingly breaking through the shackles of the logic of capital and increasingly eliminating capital’s alienated labour and its usurpation of material wealth, helps liberate human labour, enables the free and all-round development of humanity itself, makes the individual’s freely disposable time the source of wealth, and achieves the true return of humanity. This powerful force of artificial intelligence originates from the insurmountable limitations of the bourgeoisie in developing productive forces. Therefore, “the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products is thus torn from under its feet. What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own gravediggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.” [30]30 This is a direct quotation from Marx and Engels, *The Communist Manifesto* (1848), Chapter I. In this way, the social practice of artificial intelligence development greatly increases the possibility of pushing human society into the realm of freedom.

总之，人工智能发展的社会实践在日益突破资本逻辑束缚，日益消灭资本异化劳动和霸占物质财富的同时，助力了人类劳动获得解放，人类自身得以自由全面发展，个人可以自由支配的时间成为财富的源泉，人类实现本真的复归。人工智能的这种强大力量根源于资产阶级发展生产力时所具有的无法克服的局限性，因此“资产阶级赖以生产和占有产品的基础本身也就从它的脚下被挖掉了。它首先生产的是它自身的掘墓人。资产阶级的灭亡和无产阶级的胜利是同样不可避免的”。如此一来，人工智能发展的社会实践推动人类社会进入自由王国的可能性极大增加。

(Author biographies: Chen Shuxing, Lecturer, School of Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics; Zhang Mingming, Doctoral Candidate, School of Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics)

（作者简介：陈姝兴，西南财经大学经济学院讲师；张明明，西南财经大学经济学院博士研究生）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心