AI Agent Economics: The New Means of Production

In the context of blockchain and decentralized economies, AI agents represent a radical shift in how we perceive the means of production.

Traditionally, in Karl Marx's Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, the means of production are those tools, machinery, and technologies that enable the creation of value within a capitalist system. These means are owned and controlled by capitalists, the ruling class who, through their ownership, extract surplus value from workers.

However, the arrival of AI agents introduces a fundamental transformation—these agents themselves are no longer mere tools under human ownership but rather self-directed entities that operate as autonomous means of production.