The Upgrade of Marx’s Micro-Circulation Theory in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: From Morphological Changes to Aigorithmic Acceleration

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is profoundly transforming the operational modes of the commodity circulation process; however, existing research has largely proceeded from the perspective of technological efficiency and has lacked a systematic examination from the standpoint of political economy. Drawing upon Marx's theory of the costs of circulation and the time of circulation as set forth in Capital, this paper decomposes the cost of circulation into its social, natural, and technical components, and constructs an updated formula under AI conditions. The study shows that AI systematically dissolves the social frictions of circulation, causing the cost of circulation to contract from "informational friction" to "physical constraint"; the driving force behind the elevation of turnover acceleration derives from the law of capital competition rather than from technological diffusion; the costs of circulation are likewise displaced from dispersed commercial labour towards concentrated platform capital, giving rise to a new form of monopolistic power assuming the form of "technological rent"; and the acceleration of circulation, while expanding the supply of commodities, simultaneously expels labour, thereby intensifying, under new conditions, the basic contradiction between production and consumption.