Realistic Responses to Misconceptions Surrounding Marx’s Labor Theory of Value in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Its Developmental Prospects

Abstract

The rise of AI-based modes of production has sparked debates over whether “machines create value,” thereby casting doubt upon the contemporary explanatory power of Marx’s labor theory of value. By elucidating the core principles of Marx’s labor theory of value and distinguishing key categories such as use value and value, living labor and objectified labor, this paper demonstrates that viewpoints such as “machines create value” are fundamentally rooted in theoretical confusion. The study finds that the current era of artificial intelligence is still far from realizing a “digital utopia”; behind automated production there remains a new form of complex labor, and the ultimate source of surplus value continues to be living labor. On this basis, the paper further reveals the new developmental landscape of the labor theory of value in the age of AI, namely the exponential expansion of use values and the profound restructuring of value production. Marx’s labor theory of value has not become obsolete; rather, the methodological insights embedded within it remain capable of analyzing contemporary social realities.