A Reflection on Human Inequality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: From Distributive Justice to Capability and Relational Equality

Abstract

This article examines artificial intelligence (AI) not merely as a tool for enhancing productivity but as a general-purpose technology that is restructuring the foundational architecture of society. It offers a philosophical and ethical reflection on the forms of human inequality intensified by AI. The point of departure is the question of how inequality ought to be measured. While Rawls’s difference principle and theories of luck egalitarianism focus on the distribution of resources and opportunities, the capability approach developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum shifts attention to what individuals are effectively able to do and to be. Adopting the capability approach as its analytical framework, this study argues that inequality in the age of AI extends beyond disparities in income and wealth to encompass inequalities in substantive freedoms—the real capacity of individuals to shape their own lives. The paper identifies and analyzes five interrelated dimensions through which AI exacerbates inequality: economic distribution between capital and labor; algorithmic vulnerability; data-driven and epistemic inequality; global disparities in computational infrastructure; and gaps in education and linguistic literacy. Furthermore, the article interrogates the crisis that AI poses to the narrative of meritocracy. Drawing on the works of Michael Sandel and Daniel Markovits, it demonstrates that AI redefines the boundaries of “merit,” thereby reinforcing the hereditary privileges of cognitive elites while simultaneously undermining the moral legitimacy of meritocratic ideals. In conclusion, the paper contends that justice in the age of AI must move beyond the arithmetic of distribution toward the restoration of relational equality, ensuring human dignity and equal moral standing for all.