Abstract:

[Purpose/Significance] With the continuous advancement of national governance modernization and the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, emotional-functional embodied intelligence has become integral to grassroots social governance. This development not only reshapes traditional governance tools but also triggers profound reflections on the balance between instrumental rationality and value rationality. In this context, systematically examining the internal mechanisms and potential risks associated with the integration of emotional-functional embodied intelligence into social governance can provide both theoretical enrichment and practical guidance for technology-enabled governance modernization. [Method/Process] Based on Max Weber's "tool-value" dichotomy, this study focuses on key issues concerning the influence mechanisms, risk boundaries, and regulatory pathways of emotional-functional embodied intelligence in social governance. By situating the analysis within concrete scenarios of its embedding in social governance practices, the research combines theoretical reflection with contextual examination to explore how emotional-functional embodied intelligence reshapes governance structures and processes. [Results/Conclusions] The findings reveal that AI, embodied intelligence, and emotional-functional embodied intelligence differ significantly in terms of technological architecture, functional form, and modes of integration into social governance. While AI optimizes decision-making through data empowerment and embodied intelligence delivers services through physical interaction, emotional-functional embodied intelligence achieves full-process and in-depth integration into social governance by relying on affective linkage. It forms an integrated structural system composed of the demand, intelligence, action, and support layers, thereby enabling coordinated governance operations that combine rational decision-making with emotional interaction. Through three core mechanisms - intelligence embedding, human-machine coupling and feedback-driven iteration, emotional-functional embodied intelligence is able to simultaneously accomplish rational decision-making tasks and emotional interaction objectives. However, the embedding of emotional-functional embodied intelligence in social governance also implies dual structure of risks. On one hand, it may amplify traditional risks inherent in AI technologies, such as algorithmic dependence and blurred responsibility attribution. On the other hand, it may generate new forms of context-specific risks, including emotional-cognitive alienation, value-guidance deviation, and the reconstruction of governance authority. To address these challenges, it is necessary to construct a full-chain regulatory framework for accountability and establish full-process technological safeguards encompassing ex-ante prevention, in-process monitoring, and ex-post traceability. Concurrently,it's essential to articulate value-oriented principles for emotion-informed governance and clarify a human-machine collaborative governance framework in which human actors retain primary authority while intelligent technologies play an auxiliary role. Through these coordinated measures, effective risk regulation and rational balance can be achieved in the application of emotional-functional embodied intelligence in social governance.

Key words: embodied intelligence, social governance, robotics, instrumental and value rationality, human-machine relationship, risk regulation