日期:2026/01/14 IAE
UN Principals Brief
AI, Economic Governance, and the Cost of Life
Why Life Costs Must Be Internalized in the AI Era
Prepared for
United Nations Principals
Author
Frank Chen（陳俊吉）
GCWPA × IAE Global
1. Executive Message (Key Takeaway)
Artificial intelligence has eliminated the technical barriers to measuring life-related costs.
What remains is a governance choice.
In the AI era, continuing to exclude life, health, and environmental costs from economic decision-making is no longer a technical limitation—it is a policy failure.
This brief outlines why AI-enabled internalization of life costs is now essential for sustainable economic governance and UN system coherence.
2. The Core Problem Facing Economic Governance
Current economic systems—despite AI augmentation—remain optimized for:
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Price efficiency
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Output growth
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Profit maximization
They systematically exclude life costs, including:
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Public health degradation
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Mental and occupational health impacts
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Environmental damage affecting survival conditions
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Intergenerational risks
These costs are real, cumulative, and fiscally transferred to governments and future generations.
3. Why This Matters Now: AI Changes the Equation
AI and big data now enable governments to:
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Quantify health and environmental externalities
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Model long-term social and intergenerational impacts
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Simulate policy outcomes before implementation
Therefore:
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Life costs are now measurable
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Externalities are now predictable
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Policy inaction is now avoidable
Failure to act is no longer due to lack of capacity, but lack of governance alignment.
4. What Are “Life Costs”?
For policy purposes, life costs include:
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Loss or degradation of physical and mental health
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Increased mortality and preventable disease burden
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Environmental damage reducing life expectancy and resilience
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Deferred access to essential services due to price or system design
When excluded, these costs:
5. The Governance Gap
Traditional models focus on:
Profit=Revenue−Financial Cost
AI-enabled governance allows a more complete formulation:
Sustainable Surplus=Revenue−(Financial+Life+Social+Environmental Costs)
Yet most AI systems remain locked into the first equation.
6. Policy Implication: Reframing Profit and Growth
Under life-cost-aware governance:
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Profit remains legitimate only after life costs are internalized
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Growth is assessed by its impact on life sustainability, not volume alone
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Prevention becomes fiscally superior to remediation
This reframing aligns economic performance with human survival and institutional legitimacy.
7. Relevance to UN Strategic Priorities
AI-enabled life cost internalization directly supports:
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SDG 3 – Health and Well-being
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SDG 8 – Decent Work and Sustainable Growth
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SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production
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SDG 13 – Climate Action
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SDG 16 – Effective Institutions
It strengthens policy coherence across the UN system by aligning economic, environmental, and social objectives.
8. Risks of Inaction
If AI continues to be deployed only for efficiency and profit:
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Public health costs will escalate
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Fiscal pressure on governments will intensify
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Environmental tipping points will accelerate
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Trust in economic institutions will erode
In short: AI will accelerate, rather than correct, systemic failure.
9. Strategic Options for UN Principals
UN leadership may consider:
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Endorsing life-cost-aware AI governance principles
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Encouraging pilot life cost accounting in economic policy
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Integrating life cost metrics into SDG monitoring
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Promoting preventive investment over post-damage spending
These steps require no ideological shift—only governance alignment.
10. Concluding Insight for Principals
The question is no longer whether we can measure the cost of life.
The question is whether we choose to govern with that knowledge.
AI offers the United Nations a historic opportunity to align economic governance with the preservation of life and the sustainability of civilization.