Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 2, 2025

A Study on the Fundamental Issues of Historical Materialism in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

(Abstract)

Tu Liangchuan

Artificial intelligence is not a product of the natural evolution of matter driven by self-causality but a social construct created by humans. It is promoting the transformation of automated production into intelligent production, enriching and advancing general intelligence. Artificial intelligence embodies the materiality of intelligence, altering both the means and logic through which objects express objectivity. It serves as evidence of the truth, reality, and power of thought. As the intelligence of objects, artificial intelligence highlights the dynamism of social existence and acts as a material expression of the creative logic of social consciousness. In the age of artificial intelligence, employing historical materialism to examine how technological revolutions that “change the world” reshape real-world practice, theoretical thought, and conceptions of civilization offers a theoretical pathway for elevating social existence into social consciousness. It also serves as a practical approach to innovating and developing Marxist philosophy. Within the interplay of “human–artificial intelligence–objects,” an exploration of the form, structure, and content of creation in both consciousness and history constitutes a philosophical inquiry into the fundamental issues of historical materialism in the age of artificial intelligence.