Make theoretical and policy reserves to deal with the iterative and subversive development of artificial intelligence

Think tank view Ding Yuanzhu

On the afternoon of May 30, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the first meeting of the 20th Central National Security Commission and delivered an important speech, emphasizing the need to improve the level of network data artificial intelligence security governance.

To coordinate development and security, we must pay attention to the impact of a new round of technological innovation and industrial revolution. Technological innovation is a complex social system project, involving all fields of economy and society. Therefore, in addition to accelerating scientific development and technological innovation, we must also attach great importance to the impact of science and technology on the economy and society, and do a good job in public policy and social policy reserve work for technological innovation and iterative development as soon as possible.

Focus on the impact of AI iteration and disruption

After the advent of ChatGPT, people not only cared about its own development and evolution, but also discussed its impact on society. If the first industrial revolution liberated human beings from physical labor, this artificial intelligence revolution based on computers and the Internet will have a profound impact on human knowledge creation and human mental work, and will extend to all fields and levels of social life, including public policies, social policies, social security systems, government governance, etc., and related philosophical, humanities and social science innovations will also be put on the agenda. In the face of the rapid development of science and technology, it is necessary to seriously study and take precautions, so that human beings can develop together with machines in the process of development, so as to ensure that science and technology benefit mankind, improve people's livelihood and well-being, and improve people's quality of life.

At present, public policy, social policy and social security system are basically institutional mechanism design to adapt to the second industrial revolution

Adapting to scientific discoveries, technological inventions and industrial revolutions, mankind has created public policy, social policy science, public policy, social policy and social security system. The micro-community and macro-community of modern industrial society together constitute a community with a shared future for mankind.

At present, robots and employment, ChatGPT and knowledge production are causing a series of new social problems, such as the construction of social security system under the large use of robots, government tax base, taxation methods, government governance methods, education reform and innovation, etc. The rapid development of intelligent technology and the accelerated integration of society under the intelligent ecology require the research results of core disciplines such as philosophy, humanities and social sciences, computer science, and anthropology to respond to comprehensive issues such as human cognition, social structure change, robot development trends, and human network evolution, establish comprehensive decision-making systems and mechanisms, and promote the basic theories in public policy, social policy, social security system and other fields to keep pace with the times. In the near future, it will be recognized that the emergence and rapid evolution of a new generation of artificial intelligence will have an immeasurable impact on the study of disciplines such as history and sociology.

Artificial intelligence has brought new challenges to social development and social governance.

First, not only because of the rapid development of technology, but also because the rapid development of technology has brought profound changes in the operation mechanism and operation mode of society. The relationship between robots and humans is completely new, and the boundaries are blurred and uncertain. Historically, the uncertainty of artificial intelligence, and its possible impact on humans, has been debated since its inception. Moreover, once artificial intelligence enters the decision-making system, it must be revolutionary, because it is intelligent and uncertain. Under what circumstances human-computer interaction will cause problems, or how to define the abuse of artificial intelligence products, has become a new situation that cannot be avoided by public policies and social policies in the new stage of development, which is related to the policy formulation and policy implementation of government departments, as well as the maintenance of social order, and how sovereign countries formulate relevant guiding principles for achieving healthy economic and social development - these are far different from the formulation of traditional public policies and social policies.

Second, in order to formulate corresponding public policies and social policies to adapt to technological progress, it is necessary to understand how the whole society changes and operates under the smart ecology, and how it is different from the previous industrial society. The Internet, especially mobile Internet, has expanded rapidly, and its users have grown to an incredible scale: everyone has a mobile phone, and the whole society has undergone profound changes. Chat GPT, a chatbot developed by Open AI, was launched just two months after its launch in January 2023 and has an estimated 100 million monthly active users, making it the fastest growing consumer app in history. Artificial intelligence products are becoming more and more attractive, and people are spending more and more time on digital products, artificial intelligence products such as social networks, SMS, games, Douyin, ChatGPT, etc. Constrained by time rigidity, people use certain network products, it is no longer possible to use more time to use other products, or spend more time reading, making friends, enhancing family affection, etc., to some extent, some members of society have been captured by digital products and artificial intelligence products, which has led to profound changes in the pattern of social relations, resulting in the disappearance of community boundaries in the traditional sense.

Facing new technological innovation and industrial revolution, expand the connotation and extension of public policies and social policies

On the one hand, it is necessary to focus on policy priorities.

First, education reform and innovation should be put on the agenda. It is necessary to study the characteristics of artificial intelligence and the characteristics of human beings different from artificial intelligence, and on this basis, explore how to give full play to human initiative and creativity, develop innovative thinking, shift the focus of educational reform and innovation to innovation, improve students' innovation ability, data quality, technical quality and humanistic quality, and improve the ability and level of human beings to control artificial intelligence. Education should give greater prominence to the all-round development of the human person.

The second is to accelerate the research on the impact of robot layout on employment. developing jobs that are appropriate to human characteristics and needs and improve human well-being; On the basis of economic development, we will continue to improve human well-being and promote social progress. Historically, with every technological innovation, people have raised the issue of the impact of new technologies on employment, but after every technological revolution, people have found that humans have new jobs. Therefore, there is no need to worry too much about the emergence of artificial intelligence, but it is necessary to accelerate the study of its possible impact on human employment and the new jobs that may be created in the future, and rationally deploy artificial intelligence and human resources.

The third is to study the income distribution system. Wealth has different characteristics from the era of the industrial revolution under the digital economy and artificial intelligence ecology. Covered in the cloak of high technology, the inequality of the digital economy ecology is even less easy to detect and difficult to supervise. It also conforms to the "law of twenty-eight": only a small part of the income, about 20%, can receive income, and the remaining 80%, although it is a majority, will increasingly concentrate wealth in the hands of a few, causing social problems, public issues, that is, social inequality, and even the disappearance of the middle class. Issues such as winner-take-all in the digital economy and the reduction of social mobility by artificial intelligence need to be studied early. The formation of middle-income groups is a social structure caused by industrialization, standardization and large-scale production methods, in the digital environment, this social structure will change with the change of production methods, and the social structure envisaged by people in the industrial social environment may not arrive as expected, and it is necessary to pay attention to new trends and adjust public policies and social policy expectations in time.

Fourth, on the issue of social security. The industrial revolution in the 19th century caused large-scale machine production, the population concentrated in large-scale factories and concentrated in cities, forming large-scale economic belts and urban belts, and traditional social relations changed. Social welfare, social security and other functions previously undertaken by families and communities lost their role, and a social security system was enacted by the government and gradually established, which is still used by people today. The use of a large number of robots will cause changes in the organizational form and organizational form of existing factories, robots will replace artificial labor, and the original social security payment methods and distribution methods will change accordingly, and these changes will trigger the reform and innovation of the social security system. How to reform? How to innovate? It is necessary to keep up with the development of technology and think deeply and explore.

Fifth, the existing financial system and public service system were formed under the organizational form in the era of the industrial revolution. In the environment of robots replacing a large number of labor, the tax system will undergo profound changes, and the reform and innovation of the fiscal revenue and expenditure system are inevitable.

Sixth, with the above changes and innovations, the government governance mode and administrative operation mode will change accordingly. Government fiscal revenue and fiscal expenditure will focus on the social impact of technology application, and according to these social impacts, adjust public policies and social policies, adjust income distribution methods, better arrange social life, maintain social order, and handle the relationship between humans and machines.

On the other hand, public policy and social policy research should keep pace with the times.

In such an era, philosophical, humanities and social science workers are facing great challenges, to learn from Marx, Engels and the thinkers and people of their time, in-depth study of the possible changes brought by technology to social development and their direction, pay close attention to technology itself, study and study technology, and pay attention to its latest development.

First, in the face of the profound changes brought about by the rapid development of technology, public policies and social policies should study the logic and characteristics of technology itself. Only by mastering the logic of technological development can we have a deeper understanding of the development and change direction of public policies and social policies.

The second is to reflect on the public policies, social policies, and social security systems born in the 19th century, as well as their technical, historical and social logic, and then understand the social policies, social security system innovation content and development direction that contemporary technological development and innovation may bring.

The third is to deeply study the characteristics and internal logic of the new technological revolution itself. On this basis, we will study their impact on future society and human development, innovate public policies, social policies, social security and social welfare systems according to such technological changes and the problems they bring, better handle the relationship between humans and machines, and improve human well-being and quality of life on a higher basis.

[The author is a professor at the Department of Social and Ecological Civilization of the Central Party School (National Academy of Administration)]