CONCEPT
Internal and External Goods in the AI Age
Crawford's application of MacIntyre's distinction to AI-mediated work — the goods produced by genuine practice vs. the commodities markets reward.
Internal and external goods in the AI age names Crawford's application of Alasdair MacIntyre's virtue-ethics distinction to the specific transformation that AI produces in professional work. MacIntyre distinguished between the goods internal to a practice — goods available only through participation in the practice itself — and external goods attached to the practice but obtainable through other means (money, prestige, advancement). Crawford's argument is that AI is spectacularly effective at delivering external goods while being structurally incapable of producing internal goods, because internal goods require participation in the practice and AI does not participate.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The internal goods of a practice include the specific satisfactions of skilled execution, the particular understanding that accumulates through years of attentive engagement, the embodied judgment that informs competent performance, and the specific forms of character that sustained practice develops. These goods are not available to anyone who has not done the work. They cannot be purchased, simulated, or obtained