Abstract:

The social risks caused by artificial intelligence (AI) are rooted in the injustice of an AI society. In order to more comprehensively understand the social justice risks of AI, it is necessary to analyze the social form of the era of AI based on Marxism. From the perspective of “production justice”, an AI society is one of deeply automated production, which may lead to production justice risks such as downward aggregation of labor, weakening of labor capacity, and labor “dividuum”. From the perspective of “distributive justice”, an AI society is one of great material abundance but serious unfairness to individuals, in terms of spatial and time distribution. From the perspective of “cognitive justice”, an AI society combines the virtual and the real, which may lead to the risk of cognitive justice, such as rational cognitive deprivation, self-control deprivation, and independent choice deprivation. From the perspective of “development justice”, the contradictions and tensions between AI and human society may lead to development justice problems such as energy competition, imbalance of rights and responsibilities, and passive resistance, all of which can weaken society’s motivation to pursue justice. The fundamental cause of the “justice risk” of an AI society lies in the contradiction between the world’s limited resources and the unlimited demands of human beings and AI. The core incentive lies in the inherent social injustice of human society itself. And the biggest obstacle is that the existing governance methods are unsuited to act directly on the responsible subjects in the field of AI. To this end, it is necessary to reasonably delineate the energy consumption standards and proportions of AI development, focus on solving the unjust problems in traditional society, and penetrate the “black box of responsibility” of AI for the purpose of human development.

Key words: artificial intelligence, production justice, distributive justice, cognitive justice, development justice