Wang Shuixing: The Internal Logic of Intelligent Society, a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind, and a New Form of Human Civilization
"The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life." From the perspective of historical materialism, the mode of material production determines the overall character of social development. In the intelligent age, highly developed productive forces created by humanity have made the realization of a dignified life for all of mankind a practical possibility. The crux of the matter, however, lies in the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) itself and the application of AI are two different things. The application of AI based on the logic of capital may pose existential risks to humanity.
I. The Development of Intelligent Society Urgently Requires Building a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity and Creating a New Form of Human Civilization
If we characterize the society shaped by "artificial physical power" technologies such as the steam engine as industrial society, then the society shaped by the large-scale application of emerging information technologies—such as AI, big data, and the Internet of Things (IoT)—is an intelligent society. AI is the technological manifestation of the iterative and convergent development of social digitalization, networking, and intellectualization. Having developed as a technology that extends and enhances human capabilities, AI has already demonstrated its significance in bringing about subversive transformations to existing modes of social development. Within the framework of "one globe, two systems" [1], intelligent society generally faces two potential futures.
1. AI Shapes Two Types of Communities: The "Illusory Community" and the "Real Community"
Marx stated that "it took both time and experience before the workpeople learnt to distinguish between machinery and its employment by capital, and to direct their attacks, not against the material instruments of production, but against the mode in which they are used." By the same token, one must distinguish between AI and the social forms of its application. AI is the objectification of the human essence and a new structural force created by humanity. This new structural force can either function as a means for the valorization of capital—thereby objectively becoming an alienated force standing in opposition to humanity—or it can empower the free and well-rounded development of individuals, thus becoming a powerful "lever" for historical progress.
Examined through the history of technological revolutions, technology and capitalism have always been inextricably linked. From the development of industrial capitalism to digital capitalism, the transitions in capitalist forms have always been accompanied by the transmutation of the technological "base." Undoubtedly, changes in the form of capitalism cannot alter the essence of the capitalist system of wage labor. Digital capitalism not only fails to eliminate the inherent basic contradictions of capitalism but instead reveals this fact: as intelligent society develops deeply, all exploiting classes and systems "become not only superfluous but economically, politically, and intellectually a hindrance to development."
Since the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, represented by technologies like AI and big data, the image of "freedom, democracy, and equality" vaunted by major developed countries such as the United States has not been bolstered; instead, it has increasingly faced systemic challenges such as rampant populism, democratic backsliding, and intensifying inequality. For the proletariat and the laboring people, intelligent capitalist society remains an "illusory community," the essence of which as a "community of capitalists" is increasingly exposed.
Why does digital capitalism create an "illusory community"? The root cause is that AI has not, and cannot, replace the "living labor" of workers to create surplus value. The capitalist application of AI merely changes the form through which surplus value is created; it does not change the essence of capitalism. The more fully AI is applied under capitalism, the more pronounced the illusoriness of this "illusory community" becomes. The more intelligently capitalism develops, "the higher the productivity of labor, the greater is the number of non-workers compared to workers, and the greater is the number of workers who do not produce necessary means of subsistence or who do not engage in material production at all." In other words, the more digital capitalism develops, the more "useless people"—in the words of Yuval Noah Harari—there will be. As a technology that reconstructs the material mode of production of modern society, the capitalist application of AI is spreading globally, and the fragmentation, antagonism, chaos, and turbulence of society as a whole become inevitable.
If we examine the technological revolution within the history of the transition of socialist forms, we can likewise find that socialism also possesses various developmental facets. The socialist application of AI is, in fact, currently empowering the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity and promoting the creation of a new form of human civilization.
Modern socialism has developed continuously through its struggle against modern capitalism. From the perspective of historical materialism, "all political struggles are class struggles, and all class struggles for emancipation... despite their necessarily political form—for every class struggle is a political struggle—turn ultimately on the question of economic emancipation." If modern capitalist society is essentially a society centered on the valorization of capital, then modern socialist society is a society centered on human emancipation. "Only in community [with others has each] individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions; only in the community, therefore, is personal freedom possible." The community discussed by Marx refers to the "real community" of humanity formed after the withering away of the state, where highly developed productive forces are jointly possessed by the whole of society and all means of production are under social common ownership. As contemporary AI technology undergoes continuous iterative development and widespread application, general human labor is increasingly being replaced by AI. Humanity increasingly possesses the sufficient conditions to engage in science, art, enjoyment, learning, and social interaction—all of which are conducive to the free and well-rounded development of the person. This heralds the possible birth of a new form of civilization that achieves thorough economic and political emancipation. With the deep development of intelligent society under the socialist system, the community with a shared future for humanity is continually endowed with new connotations, thereby moving closer to the "real community."
2. AI Shapes Two Forms of Civilization: "Capital's Civilization" and "Labor's Civilization"
Within the perspective of the Marxist theory of civilization, "slavery, at first open and later disguised, has always accompanied the age of civilization." This "civilization" refers to civilization based on private ownership. Modern capitalist civilization is a civilization formed by capital's domination over labor. Fundamentally speaking, "capital's civilization" has hitherto remained built upon the foundation of underdeveloped social productive forces, which results in the division of society into two antagonistic classes. Opposed to "capital's civilization," "labor's civilization" (the civilization created by a socialist society where the people are the masters of the country) is a civilization formed by labor's mastery over capital. As a factor of production, capital is merely "dead labor," while the creation of civilization can never be divorced from the "living labor" of human beings. Therefore, examined from the logic of civilizational generation, both "capital's civilization" and "labor's civilization" are, in the final analysis, the "rule" of labor over man.
With the deep development of intelligent society, humanity may be liberated from labor. This "labor" is essentially the "alienated labor" that is to be abolished in the Marxian context, rather than "life's prime want." The continuous iterative development of AI promises to break the rule of general labor over humans, thereby creating the conditions for labor to become life’s prime want and, ultimately, for the realization of the free and well-rounded development of the individual.
From the essential requirements of an intelligent society, only a society that truly takes the free and well-rounded development of the individual as its fundamental goal can be called an intelligent society. Conversely, any society that runs counter to such development cannot be termed an intelligent society. Therefore, digital capitalism can never build an intelligent society. Only a socialist society that transcends the capitalist application of AI can establish a true intelligent society. In short, building an intelligent society urgently requires humanity to form a new institutional framework and value norms to finally escape the paradoxical civilizational pattern of an "intelligent society that is not intelligent enough."
Analyzing the economic base of class generation: "The separation of society into an exploiting and an exploited class, a ruling and an oppressed class, was the necessary consequence of the deficient and restricted development of production in former times... So long as the total social labor only yields a produce which but slightly exceeds that barely necessary for the existence of all; so long, therefore, as labor engages all or almost all the time of the great majority of the members of society—so long, of necessity, this society is divided into classes." In a sufficiently intelligent society, the application of AI is fully capable of creating the necessary conditions for humanity to obtain increasing free time. When these conditions develop to the point where everyone possesses sufficient free time, it signifies the moment for humanity to form a true community with a shared future. The development of AI has already created the realistic conditions for society to eliminate the circumstance in which humanity enslaves itself. As these conditions develop more fully, the emergence of a form of civilization that transcends capital and truly belongs to humanity becomes a historical necessity. As a new type of means of production capable of replacing human labor, the magnitude of the "creativity" inherent in AI depends on the magnitude of human creativity. In an intelligent society, AI generally assists in the production of the material means of life. This means that productive forces have reached a level sufficient to eliminate class antagonism and class rule caused by the insufficiency of productive forces. As Engels pointed out, "it is only now that any ruling and exploiting class has become superfluous." During the rise of industrial civilization, where large-scale machinery replaced the labor of workers, Engels asserted the superfluity of all ruling and exploiting classes, including the bourgeoisie.
As humanity moves toward the intelligent era, all systems and classes that exploit and oppress people increasingly appear superfluous. In the intelligent era, it is not Marxism or scientific socialism that has become "obsolete," but rather capitalism and its system of wage labor. "The expansive force of the means of production bursts the bonds that the capitalist mode of production had imposed upon them." Therefore, like the slave and feudal modes of production of the past, with the deep development of intelligent society, the capitalist mode of production and the capitalist state machine should be relegated to the "museum of antiquities." In their place will be the continuous enrichment and development of the material and technological foundations of socialism, thereby promoting "labor's civilization"—which truly belongs to humanity—as the universal form of human civilization. It is certain that with the deep development of intelligent society, the "capital's civilization" created by the capitalist system will inevitably decline, while the "labor's civilization" created by the socialist system will flourish.
3. The Deep Development of Intelligent Society Requires Building a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity and Creating a New Form of Human Civilization
From the perspective of historical materialism, "labor is the fundamental force driving the progress of human society." Without labor, there would be no human civilization. Labor is the mode of human existence and development, and it is also the necessary path to the free and well-rounded development of the individual. On one hand, Marx emphasized: "Every child knows that any nation that stopped working, not for a year, but let us say, just for a few weeks, would perish." On the other hand, Marx and Engels also emphasized: "the communist revolution... is in itself directed against the preceding mode of activity, does away with labor." What humanity seeks to abolish is not all labor, but rather all "alienated labor" imposed upon humans that shackles their freedom and emancipation.
With the advent of the intelligent era, the abolition of alienated labor and the realization of free labor are not only requirements of the transformation of the form of labor itself but also the internal requirements of the development of technological logic. As Lewis Mumford warned in Technics and Civilization, without the coordination of higher social goals, the development of the machine system in the neotechnic phase can only increase the possibility of pauperization and barbarization. The deep development of intelligent society increasingly requires society to move "labor" away from being a mere means of making a living, turning it into an activity that enriches individual personality and freedom and promotes the realization of human value—that is, an activity through which human essence is reclaimed. Clearly, these conditions can only be created within a community with a shared future for humanity. The "sham community" of digital capitalism is unable to create these conditions.
Since AI is artificial, AI applications driven by algorithms necessarily carry the intentions and value orientations of the people who design and apply them. People's fear of AI is, in the final analysis, a fear of the malicious application of AI or its excessive application based on the logic of capital. In reality, as long as AI "labor" and human labor are not equivalent and interchangeable, the status of humanity as the subject of labor in society will not be lost. That AI exceeds certain human capabilities "is about as meaningful as a bulldozer winning an Olympic gold medal in weightlifting." The domination over humanity caused by the logic of capital in digital capitalism cannot obscure the positive significance of AI itself for human freedom and emancipation. In building an intelligent society under the socialist system, AI can fully contribute power and wisdom to the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity and the creation of a new form of human civilization.
Labor contains the clues to solving the problem of the free and well-rounded development of the individual. Only when labor becomes a completely creative and developmental activity for the person can it become an activity belonging to the human essence. For the freedom, emancipation, and well-rounded development of the person, non-logical and non-functional creative labor is of decisive significance. AI can replace not only general physical labor but also general mental labor. Under socialist conditions, the liberation of humans from general forms of labor is increasingly becoming a reality. However, [2]—
"The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, like all other technological progress, is a 'double-edged sword'." For a smart society to develop in a healthy, secure, and intelligent manner, it must necessitate that "intelligence" benefits the whole of society and respects the free and well-rounded development of every individual. Taking a community with a shared future for humanity as the core concept and the creation of a new form of human civilization as the fundamental goal are inherent requirements for the development of a smart society.
In accordance with Marx's theory of the dialectical unity [3] of production and consumption, within the context of the deep development of a smart society, if the vast wealth manifested as commodities produced through intelligent production cannot be enjoyed by the laborers, production will become decoupled from consumption. As Marx noted, "No production without consumption, no consumption without production, since production as such would then be purposeless." Therefore, as long as AI cannot "consume" like a human being, the more fully AI "replaces" human labor, the more inevitably society will fall into a state of continuous crisis characterized by the decoupling of production and consumption. The only way to escape this disorder and crisis is for society to form a genuine community, thereby achieving an intelligent matching of production and consumption and realizing the reshaping and reconstruction of the form of civilization. In other words, for a smart society to move toward a bright future, it is urgent to construct labor and political systems that are adapted to it and truly belong to a "human civilization." If AI can replace the labor required to sustain all human existence, and if society establishes a corresponding system of ownership and labor relations, it will signify the beginning of a truly civilized era for humanity. The "singularity" of the era of human civilization is fast approaching.
2. The Adaptation of a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity and a New Form of Human Civilization to a Smart Society
"The bourgeoisie has not only forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons—the modern working class, the proletarians." Digital capitalism has not only forged intelligent weapons that destroy the capitalist system but will also forge the people who wield those weapons. Therefore, fundamentally speaking, the development of a smart society under the socialist system will inevitably create a situation favorable to the development of world socialism and the liberation of the working people. The deep development of a smart society provides powerful support for consolidating a community with a shared future for humanity and creating a new form of human civilization, thereby creating the possibilities and conditions for the realization of communism.
1. Digital capitalism cannot form a smart society, let alone create a new form of human civilization
A smart society is one of mutual benefit, collaboration, co-construction, and sharing. So long as exploitation exists in a society, it cannot be said to have entered a smart society. Ultimately, AI is contradictory and incompatible with the logic of capital, whereas AI is interconnected and consistent with the logic of labor.
In 1903, when expounding on a new and better social system, Lenin emphasized: "In this new, better society there must be neither rich nor poor; all will have to work. Not a handful of rich people, but all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common labor. Machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all and not to enable a few to grow rich at the expense of millions and tens of millions of people. This new and better society is called socialist society." A smart society is a beautiful society where intelligent technology empowers human development; its essence is consistent with that of a socialist society. Otherwise, it cannot be called a smart society.
A digital capitalist society clearly cannot become the beautiful society imagined by Lenin. "Capitalist civilization is built on the foundation of the capitalist exploitation system; it cannot overcome or eliminate the barbaric nature inherent within that civilization... Although the capitalist system and the Western model of modernization are constantly evolving, their inherent nature—the supremacy of capital, the law of the jungle, polarization, and hegemony—has not changed in the slightest. Their flaws are becoming increasingly obvious." Within the framework of the logic of capital, the drive of intelligent technological logic alone cannot solve the problems of the alienation of labor, the alienation of science and technology, and the paradoxical development of civilization. Global climate, the ecological environment, and resources are the most significant public resources for the continued development of human civilization. "There is only one Earth in the universe and mankind has only one homeland... To date, Earth is the only home on which humans depend for survival. To cherish and care for the Earth is the only choice for humanity." However, digital capitalism can only accelerate the formation of a "tragedy of the commons" for the ecological environment.
In the intelligent era, the myths and halo of capitalism have faded and vanished. "Capital is not a personal power, but a social power." "The movement of capital is limitless." In the intelligent era, the crisis of modernity encountered by humanity remains the result of the expansion of the logic of capital. As the logic of capital in AI applications unfolds globally, capitalist civilization will inevitably encounter systemic crises. In other words, no matter how hidden the exploitation of wage laborers by intelligent capitalism may be, the workers' mode of existence remains slave-like. If society does not possess the sum total of the productive forces, society will inevitably be divided into classes. In the human society of the intelligent era, class struggle and class rule will remain unavoidable for a considerably long historical period. Under specific circumstances, the class struggles and contradictions faced by humanity may even become more intense. No matter how AI technology develops, so long as society does not form a genuine community, it cannot form a true smart society.
"One of the civilizing aspects of capital is that it extorts this surplus labor in a manner and under conditions that are more advantageous to the development of the productive forces, to social relations, and to the creation of elements for a new and higher form than under the preceding forms of slavery, serfdom, etc." As a new factor of production created by convergent technologies, contemporary capitalism allows capital to "swallow" living human labor through "unmanned factories." Contemporary capitalism has developed the modern "civilization of capital" to the highest possible degree. However, the fact that the capitalist mode of production has become more "civilized" cannot obscure the contradiction between the private appropriation of the means of production and socialized large-scale production. So long as AI remains "artificial," it signifies the inevitable existence of the paradox of contemporary capitalist civilization.
2. The mutual construction of smart society, a community with a shared future for humanity, and a new form of human civilization
Examining the history of the development of human civilization, although civilizations are not ranked by superiority or inferiority, there is a distinction between the new and the old. The "new form of human civilization" created by China is essentially a new socialist civilization that transcends capitalist civilization. Building a smart society is an important aspect of enriching and expanding the new form of human civilization through Chinese-path modernization. The more fully China's smart society develops, the more solid the foundation will be for promoting the building of a community with a shared future for humanity. China actively promotes the innovative global governance of AI, standing rooted in China while keeping the whole world in mind; this both practically implements the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity and contributes wisdom and strength to the creation of a new form of human civilization. The mutually constructive relationship between the smart society, a community with a shared future for humanity, and the new form of human civilization is determined by the essence of all three.
"Driven by new theories and technologies such as the mobile internet, big data, supercomputing, sensor networks, and brain science, AI is exhibiting new characteristics such as deep learning, cross-border integration, man-machine collaboration, open swarm intelligence, and autonomous control. It is exerting a major and far-reaching influence on economic development, social progress, and global governance." The fact that humanity has created AI means that the creative application of human consciousness has reached a new height, and it also means that humanity has the ability to transform conscious activity into electronic signals (code systems) for transmission and mathematical logic calculation processes. The code systems constructed by humans have created the conditions for the development of human collaborative capabilities. Fundamentally, a smart society is a society where human collaborative capability has reached a new height. This human collaboration includes both vertical collaboration between generations and horizontal collaboration between different nations and countries. From the perspective of the grand history of human civilization's evolution, it is precisely this intelligent collaborative ability, inherent in human genes, that created human civilization on Earth.
In the intelligent era, to resolve various risks and challenges concerning the destiny of all humanity—including the governance of AI—China's solution is to build a community with a shared future for humanity and achieve win-win sharing. Overall, only within a community with a shared future for humanity characterized by equal collaboration and mutual benefit can the civilized application of AI be realized. Only in a socialist society can AI applications truly achieve win-win sharing. Without socialism, there can be no true smart society.
The application of AI in socialist China can transcend the limitations and constraints of capital and realize the maximization of the people's interests. "Developing AI will provide important support for our country to build a modern economic system and achieve high-quality development, and provide an important guarantee for the improvement of people's livelihoods." The application of AI in contemporary China fully demonstrates the revolutionary significance brought about by the mutual reinforcement and mutual construction of a smart society, a community with a shared future for humanity, and a new form of human civilization. "Labor in a form planned and performed in common is called collaboration... Collaboration not only increases the individual productive power, but creates a productive power that is, in itself, a collective power." The bottom logic of contemporary China’s construction of a smart society and its continuous realization of high-quality economic and social development is that the Communist Party of China leads the Chinese people in upholding the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity and fully tapping into the collaborative and collective power contained in the socialist application of science and technology to benefit the whole of society. This process is itself the creation of new productive forces and a new form of human civilization.
Chinese-path modernization can transcend the blindness of capitalist production. Under socialist conditions, "the associated producers, rationally regulating their interchange with Nature, bringing it under their common control," can thus free themselves from the rule of natural forces and capital. The resonance between contemporary China's technological revolution and the socialist system has created enormous positive effects, thereby greatly demonstrating the superiority and advanced nature of the socialist system. "The more ruthlessly and disinterestedly science proceeds, the more it finds itself in harmony with the interest and aspirations of the workers." It can be predicted that the mutual reinforcement of the intelligent revolution and Chinese-path modernization will inevitably and greatly enhance the fundamental interests of socialism, thereby consolidating the foundation of a community with a shared future for humanity and promoting the creation of a new form of human civilization.
The mutual construction, promotion, and integration of the smart society, a community with a shared future for humanity, and a new form of human civilization will endow socialist civilization with even richer connotations in the building of material, political, spiritual, social, and ecological civilizations. The proletariat "can only liberate itself by completely abolishing all class rule, all servitude, and all exploitation." This is not only an internal requirement of the dialectical development of politics and economy but also an internal requirement of the logic of scientific and technological development. Only within a community with a shared future for humanity can AI become the "historical lever" [4] to trigger a leap in human civilization.
3. The mutual empowerment of smart society, a community with a shared future for humanity, and a new form of human civilization
The application of AI is, in essence, still the human application of natural forces, including human intellectual power itself. For humans to apply AI, they must first understand the operational mechanisms of natural forces. This requires sharing, as much as possible, the data resources that map the real world. Under the conditions of digitalization, networking, and intelligence, researchers can obtain new knowledge for transforming the world through the data-based analysis of the material world. "New-generation AI relies on the 'dual-wheel drive' of data and knowledge; the more data there is, the smarter it can become." On the basis of achieving hyper-growth in data resources, there must also be a social institutional system for sharing those data resources. Therefore, as one of the most important factors of production in the intelligent era, if data resources cannot be shared or are insufficiently shared, it will create non-technical obstacles to the application of AI. In AI application scenarios, the degree of sharing of compliant data resources determines the level of "intelligence" of the AI.
The computing power that drives the "labor" of AI is a new form of productive force created by humans. When the data resources driving AI are owned by the social public, the computing power should belong to the productive forces used by the social collective. Conversely, if they are privately owned, the resulting productive force is merely a private productive force. Only under the socialist system, where all means of production—including public data resources—are owned by the state, can the "computing power" formed by the ubiquitous digital, networked, and intelligent environment fully become a socialized productive force and can AI be fully applied.
AI relies on algorithmic drivers, which means the values embedded in those algorithms directly affect who enjoys the wealth "produced" by AI. In capitalist society, AI algorithms ultimately manifest as the logic of capital and the intentions of capital, and AI applications serve only a minority. In socialist society, AI algorithms are integrated with the collective will of the people, manifesting as the intention (community consciousness) to safeguard the overall and long-term interests of humanity. Consequently, the application of AI inevitably serves the development of the entire society and the free and well-rounded development of every individual.
In summary, with the profound development of intelligent society, any political superstructure and ideology focused on maintaining the interests of a minority not only become meaningless but also fail to adapt to the advanced productive forces created by the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The large-scale application of AI will sooner or later trigger a disruptive transformation in the production and reproduction of society as a whole. The development of AI demands a revolutionary restructuring of the forms of human civilization, transcending the limitations of the interest patterns of nations, regions, and interest groups, thereby realizing the true liberation of humanity. In an intelligent society, AI will empower humanity to co-create, co-govern, and share in a prosperous material life and a noble spiritual life. In a certain sense, the intelligent society is the material foundation and technical bedrock of a community with a shared future for humanity and the new form of human civilization; the community with a shared future for humanity is the principled position and universal consensus that should be followed in building an intelligent society and creating a new form of human civilization; and the new form of human civilization is the value pursuit and goal orientation of the intelligent society and the community with a shared future for humanity.
III. The Unity of Intelligent Society, a Community with a Shared Future for Humanity, and the New Form of Human Civilization
General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Although the era we live in has undergone vast and profound changes compared to the era of Marx, from the broad perspective of the 500-year history of world socialism, we are still in the historical era specified by Marxism." The historical era specified by Marxism is the era of transition from capitalism to socialism, as well as an era in which the forms of human civilization face disruptive transformation.
1. Meeting the challenges of the intelligent age requires continuously consolidating the material and ideological foundations of a community with a shared future for humanity
The profound development of the intelligent age objectively requires human society to accept the basic principles of scientific socialism as quickly and widely as possible. However, we must recognize that the intelligent revolution will not necessarily cause a worldwide socialist political revolution simultaneously. In the intelligent age, the capitalist system of wage labor and the capitalist class that survives upon it will not automatically exit the stage of history. The game between capital and labor will persist for a long time, and the two systems of capitalism and socialism will also coexist for a long time. The question is: in the historical era of transition from capitalism to socialism, how should humanity deal with the existential risks to human survival that the capitalist application of AI might induce? "At the beginning, AI was an epistemological problem; in the near future, it will upgrade into an ontological problem involving ultimate destiny—a problem that may endanger the very existence of humanity itself."
For a considerably long period, the pattern of the game between the logic of capital and the logic of labor will remain. While capitalism promotes the development of human productive forces, it inevitably exacerbates the global climate change crisis and the risks of ecological degradation. The spread of the logic of capital inevitably causes society to split into the propertied and the propertyless, the oppressor and the oppressed, and the exploiter and the exploited. In essence, as long as the relationship of capital's rule over labor exists, the logic of capital will continue to dominate the existence and development of human society.
Within the logic of capital, "every new lever of production is necessarily transformed into a new means for the enslavement of the producer by the means of production." Digital capitalism has not changed the essence of its wage labor system. On the one hand, it has created social wealth characterized by a vast array of commodities; on the other hand, the vast majority of this wealth is distributed only among the capitalist class, while a large number of so-called "superfluous people" [5] arising from the application of AI are unable to enter the social organism. In other words, within the logic of capital, the more fully AI is applied, the more serious social polarization and human alienation become, and the more hollow and unattainable a community with a shared future for humanity becomes. AI, when reinforcing the logic of capital, greatly strengthens the power of capital to dominate society. The conspiracy of the two both objectively deepens the trend toward a community with a shared future for humanity and simultaneously "short-sells" [6] it in practice, thereby turning human society into an "illusory community." Therefore, throughout the historical period of transition from capitalism to socialism, continuously consolidating the material and ideological foundations of a community with a shared future for humanity has become a major subject of the times concerning whether human civilization can achieve continuous development.
With the development of economic globalization, humanity has "increasingly become a community with a shared future in which you are in me and I am in you." A community with a shared future for humanity is both a reality (shiran) and a necessity (yingran). "The age of artificial intelligence means the highest stage of large-scale machine industry; it portends the end of capitalism and the arrival of communism." The actual situation humanity faces in the intelligent age is: at the level of productive forces, society has already marched toward the intelligent age; at the level of relations of production, society is still in an era of conflict between the logic of capital and the logic of labor. In the contemporary era, China’s advocacy for building a community with a shared future for humanity is a strategic choice that adapts to the requirements of the times and conforms to the laws of historical development.
Building a community with a shared future for humanity is an insurmountable historical stage on the path toward Marx’s "true community." Throughout the historical process of building a community with a shared future for humanity, only by fully applying the intelligence of human collaboration, jointly creating a green system of productive forces and shared modes of social development, and jointly carrying out material, political, and spiritual production in accordance with aesthetic requirements and moral principles, can humanity possess a beautiful future in the intelligent age.
2. Building an intelligent society requires transcending the logic of capital and creating a new form of human civilization
The reason the continuous development of human civilization encounters risks and challenges is, in the final analysis, due to the logic of capital. The capitalist application of AI further drives up the possibility of these risks and challenges occurring. Therefore, before humanity can fully achieve a position of rule and dominance over capital, it is necessary to create a form of civilization that is distinct from that generated by the drive of capitalist logic—to create a new form of human civilization where the logic of labor holds the dominant position.
Through arduous exploration, the Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people in opening the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, carrying out Chinese-path modernization, and creating a new form of human civilization. The new form of human civilization created by Chinese-path modernization has achieved a restructuring of the relationship between labor and capital; its essence is a form of civilization in which the logic of labor occupies the dominant position. In this new form of civilization, all types of capital, including intelligent capital, revolve around human labor rather than the other way around. The new form of human civilization created by Chinese-path modernization advances the free and comprehensive development of the person to a new historical height.
This new form of human civilization is "new" in that it transcends the logic of capital and constructs a relationship where labor harnesses and rules capital, thereby creating the conditions for building a community with a shared future for humanity. AI, by empowering the creation of a new form of human civilization, will create even more sufficient material and spiritual conditions for building a community with a shared future for humanity. As these conditions increasingly enrich and develop, the connotations of the new form of human civilization are daily enriched and expanded. In this sense, the process of building a community with a shared future for humanity is the process of continuously enriching and expanding the new form of human civilization.
Examined from the perspective of the game between capital and labor, the key to a community with a shared future for humanity lies in "building." In the context of the profound development of an intelligent society, establishing a scientific, systematic, and complete system for the governance of capital is an extremely important aspect. It is necessary to ensure the regulated and healthy development of various forms of capital, including intelligent capital. A certain tension must be maintained between upholding the reasonable appreciation of capital and upholding the inclusive development of society—ensuring both that intelligent technology benefits society to the maximum extent and that the innovative development of intelligent capital is promoted, while also preventing the disorderly expansion of intelligent capital and its erosion of social equity and justice. As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "We must place the promotion of inclusiveness in a more prominent position, properly handle the relationship between equity and efficiency, capital and labor, and technology and employment, pay attention to the impact of new technologies such as AI on employment, and let more people share the fruits of development." This requires diligent efforts to organically unify the development of an intelligent society, the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, and the creation of a new form of human civilization.
As an original and identifying concept of contemporary Chinese philosophy and social sciences, the community with a shared future for humanity represents the current situation of humanity. On the one hand, the development of AI and its influence on the evolution of human civilization mean that the liberation of labor from the dominant relationship of capital already has a solid technical foundation. The human civilization shaped by the logic of labor has already been confirmed in the historical process of contemporary Chinese socialist practice. "The scientific nature and truth of Marxism have been fully tested in China, the people-centered nature and practicality of Marxism have been fully implemented in China, and the open and contemporary nature of Marxism has been fully demonstrated in China."
Whether AI can truly benefit humanity and help achieve a revolutionary reshaping of the forms of human civilization depends on whether AI can achieve application and governance oriented toward a community with a shared future for humanity, and whether we can truly realize "co-creating the intelligent age and sharing intelligent achievements." In the final analysis, we must place the "new productive forces" created by humanity itself under the rational control of the human collective, thereby transcending the logic of capital in AI application and promoting the building of an intelligent society and the creation of a new form of human civilization.
On the other hand, regarding whether the application and governance of AI relate to the survival or decline of human civilization, the interests of any interest group, power clique, or privileged stratum are utterly meaningless. Fundamentally, capitalism and the building of a community with a shared future for humanity run in completely opposite directions regarding developmental interests. Only by consistently practicing the common values of humanity—peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom—can AI become a positive factor for the free and comprehensive development of the person. In this sense, building an intelligent society with high quality is a new connotation and a new requirement of socialist modernization in the intelligent age.
The profound development of an intelligent society and highly developed productive forces will promote the formation of a community of human intelligence and artificial intelligence (a human-machine community), thereby providing the conditions for shaping well-rounded individuals and beautiful social systems. These conditions themselves are the basic elements of a new form of human civilization. When these conditions are intelligent enough to constitute a whole, the connotations of the new form of human civilization will continue to enrich and develop.
In building an intelligent society, AI and the community with a shared future for humanity mutually empower each other, and AI will assist in the high-quality development of human civilization. AI confirms that humanity's ability to apply the forces of nature has reached a new historical height. The application and governance of AI oriented toward a community with a shared future for humanity reflect the unity of the scientific and humanistic nature of technology. In the historical process of humanity's transition from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom, AI has already manifested a powerful role as a "historical lever." The application of AI in socialist China has already confirmed this role.
3. Contemporary Chinese practice confirms the unity of intelligent society, a community with a shared future for humanity, and the new form of human civilization
It is not accidental that the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity was proposed by China; it is an inevitability of the New Era, in which the Communist Party of China leads the Chinese people to firmly establish and adhere to the guiding position of Marxism in the ideological field, consciously carry forward the spirit of historical initiative [7], and consciously create a new form of human civilization. The rapid development and large-scale application of AI in China, empowering high-quality economic and social development, is also not accidental; it is an inevitability of the development of AI’s technical logic and the historical and realistic logic of Chinese social development.
China has proactively launched and actively practiced the Global Data Security Initiative, the Global AI Governance Initiative, and the Action Plan for Global AI Governance. China consistently adheres to the position that AI is an international public good that benefits humanity, and it consistently strengthens the integration of AI with the protection and improvement of people's livelihoods, thereby creating conditions for the building of a true intelligent society. China actively promotes the safe, equitable, and inclusive development of global AI; this is a concrete action in practicing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative [8]. It is an inherent requirement of practicing the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity and creating a new form of human civilization, and a vivid portrayal of proactively responding to the challenges of the intelligent revolution wave and carrying forward the spirit of historical initiative.
The cases in "China's Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of the World (2025)," released at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, show that Chinese AI products and technologies have already empowered development in many countries and regions worldwide. "AI + language communication + cultural inheritance + medical image analysis + mine safety governance + power grid safety diagnosis + scientific and technological development + educational transformation + increasing farmers' income + community governance + cultural tourism and leisure," etc., reflect that Chinese AI is integrating into the creation of human civilization with a safe, inclusive, and universal posture. The synergy and cooperation between AI and human intelligence promote exchange, mutual learning, and high-quality development among diverse human civilizations. Socialist China presents a rich picture of a beautiful human life and a multi-dimensional practice of the intelligent form of human civilization.
“Promoting the building of a community with a shared future for humanity is not about replacing one system with another, or one civilization with another. Rather, it is about countries with different social systems, different ideologies, different histories and cultures, and different levels of development sharing symbiotic interests, shared rights, and shared responsibilities in international affairs, thereby creating the greatest common divisor [9] for building a beautiful world.” Building a community with a shared future for humanity requires the rejection of arrogance and prejudice, respect for the diversity of civilizations, the maximal respect for the common interests of all humanity, and the creation of a new pattern of civilizational development characterized by extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits.
Contemporary China is able to make collective use of the advanced productive forces created by humanity, thereby continuously consolidating the material and social foundations of the community with a shared future for humanity. The Communists of China recognize that the development of human civilization is a unity of progressiveness and tortuosity. Throughout the historical process of building a community with a shared future for humanity, there exist both positive factors that continuously consolidate this community and negative factors that continuously weaken it; the key lies in exerting the people’s great spirit of historical initiative and great spirit of creativity.
Only within a community with a shared future for humanity can a rational relationship be formed between the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and social development. In a given historical period, some developing countries—especially those still in the pre-industrial era—do not “suffer from the development of capitalist production,” but rather “suffer from the incompleteness of that development” [10]. Therefore, one cannot simply demand that all countries in the world achieve the socialist application of AI simultaneously. Under the premise of adhering to the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity, we should respect the choice of each country and region to adopt AI applications and governance policies that suit their own levels of development. Only by consistently upholding the common values of humanity—peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom—can humanity achieve peaceful coexistence and common development within a multiform and pluralistic civilizational ecosystem. The convergence and mutual reinforcement of intelligent society and the new form of human civilization inherently contain immense potential and vast space for building a community with a shared future for humanity.
By consistently adhering to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the people-centered philosophy of development, China will surely continue to expand and enrich the new form of human civilization in the intelligent era. Humanity is a community with a shared future characterized by interdependence; “when the world does well, China does well; when China does well, the world gets even better.” As intelligent society develops in depth, socialist China will contribute more wisdom and strength to the peaceful development of humanity and the progress of civilization.
Conclusion
The application and governance of AI concern the fate of all humanity and represent a common task facing all countries in the world today. As the intelligent era develops in depth, the expansion of the logic of capital must be altered, and the condition of capital’s domination over labor must be changed. Transcending the logic of capital, creating a new form of human civilization, and achieving the unity of logic and practice for labor justice and historical justice are intrinsic requirements of historical development. Building a community with a shared future for humanity is both an historical necessity and a new civilizational element already forged by the era itself.
We consistently uphold Marxism and the principle of putting the people first, and adhere to innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development; the superiority of socialism will become even more apparent in the intelligent era. The more deeply intelligent society develops, the more it requires the whole of society to adhere to people-centered development and necessitates that humanity continues its development in the manner of a community. Intelligent society manifests the theoretical essence and practical requirements of the new form of human civilization.
Building a community with a shared future for humanity is the wise solution contributed by socialist China in the intelligent era for the continued development of human civilization. With the large-scale application of AI and the continuous improvement and development of its governance toward a community with a shared future, it is both possible and realistic for the logic of labor to transcend the logic of capital. In the New Era, China has proposed and practiced “AI Plus” global cooperation, promoting the inclusive sharing of AI and the joint construction of a global AI governance system. This reflects a sense of mission-driven responsibility and historical self-awareness in responding to the challenges of the wave of the intelligent revolution. The continuous high-quality development of contemporary China has confirmed, and will continue to confirm, that building an intelligent society, building a community with a shared future for humanity, and creating a new form of human civilization complement and integrate with one another.