Confucianism, Communism, and AI: The Ethical Underpinnings of AI in China
Confucianism, Communism, and AI: The Ethical Underpinnings of AI in China": This paper discusses the actual and potential influence of Marxism and Confucianism on the development of AI in China. We begin with Karl Marx's ideal of higher communism, perhaps the most influential account of a morally justifiable society with humans as dominance over machines. In higher communism, advanced machinery will do the socially necessary work and humans will be free to develop as they (we) see fit. But that kind of society seems like a long way off, and the Confucian tradition has more to offer for dealing with some of the short- to medium-term ethical challenges of artificial intelligence, particularly in the Chinese context, and Confucian insights will be discussed in the second part of the paper. Then we will return to the medium to long-term, existential threat posed by the development of artificial intelligence, and we argue that a strong state, led by a communist party, is best placed to deal with that threat.
The discussant for this workshop is TBD.
Daniel A. Bell (貝淡寧) is Professor, Chair of Political Theory with the Faculty of Law at The University of Hong Kong. He served as Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University (Qingdao) from 2017 to 2022.
His books include The Dean of Shandong (2023), Just Hierarchy (co-authored with Wang Pei, 2020), The China Model (2015), The Spirit of Cities (co-authored with Avner de-Shalit, 2012), China’s New Confucianism (2008), Beyond Liberal Democracy (2007), and East Meets West (2000), all published by Princeton University Press.
He is also the author of Communitarianism and Its Critics (Oxford University Press, 1993). He is founding editor of the Princeton-China series (Princeton University Press) which translates and publishes original and influential academic works from China. His works have been translated in 23 languages. He has been interviewed in English, Chinese, and French. In 2018, he was awarded the Huilin Prize and was honored as a “Cultural Leader” by the World Economic Forum.