Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 11, 2025

Reflections on the Continuum Theory of Artificial Intelligence and an Ontological Analysis

(Abstract)

Yang Qingfeng

A common view of artificial intelligence (AI) development treats narrow AI, general intelligence, and superintelligence as stages along a continuous trajectory. In practice, however, AI’s evolution is not entirely seamless. It more closely resembles a rock marked by fissures that have yet to break fully, calling for an inquiry into its internal fractures. Examining AI through several lenses—tool versus agent, knowledge versus existence, individuality versus collectivity, and integrative complexity—reveals these internal ruptures, which can be grouped into three categories: technological, philosophical, and ontological. The technological rupture concerns the shift from AI as a tool to AI as an autonomous agent. The philosophical rupture signifies the emergence of superintelligent entities as subjects of knowledge. The ontological rupture presents as an existential challenge, manifested in an “upgrading of being” and a “leap of being.” As a new form of agency and a novel Other, superintelligence brings these fractures sharply into view.